Perhaps a Few More Words?
by Allie357
Summary: Riley and Mia's relationship is thriving, but when the man comes forward with a stunning piece of evidence, they, along with her brother, are thrown head first into another hunt. But Riley knows Mia is hiding something... See inside for more...
1. I Need Your Help

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize from National Treasure is mine. Unfortunately... I wish is was... Too bad I don't have a genie...

Summary: Riley and Mia's relationship is thriving, but when a man comes forward with a stunning piece of evidence, they, along with Ben and his family, are thrown head-first into another exciting treasure hunt, one they have to find to prove their family's innocence. But Riley knows Mia is hiding something and he can't seem to figure out what it is. Ben doesn't know either and no matter how hard Riley tries, nothing seems to make sense. And where did this Mitch guy come from? Why is he here? And why does he keep showing up? Adventure, excitement, and romance, all jam packed itno one exciting story.

A/N: So here it is! The sequal, like I promised. Should be good. Review if you want to but you don't have to. Thanks to those who are sticking with me through this! Have fun!

--

Sup, my peeps! It's Riley Poole again! Surely you remember me! If you don't... That hurts. Not really, but I should be pretty memorable. So do you remember when I told you that I helped Ben and Mia find the City of Gold? Yeah, probably not. Well, I just did. This is that story. Although we really didn't know we were looking for the City of Gold for a while...

I actually contributed to this discovery with my own miraculous knowledge. Surprised? I thought so. But it's kind of cool to be useful. I can't, however, tell the story without a little prelude. What kind of a story teller would that make me? Not a very good one, that's for sure.

So, here's the riveting story of how Ben, Mia, and I came across the treasure of the City of Gold, with the help of Abigail and Ben's parents, but we meet them a little later. First, let me introduce you to our first main characters: me and Mia.

--

Amelia Gates wandered out of her bathroom, hair wet but fully clothed, and smiled lightly when she saw someone lying in her bed, snoring obnoxiously as if out of a cartoon. But it wasn't just any someone. This was Riley Poole, her boyfriend of eight months/best friend of eight years. The red LED letters on the clock read, 8:50. Breakfast would be in about a half hour. She'd need to wake him up.

A sly smile crept onto her features as she climbed into the bed. "Riley..." she whispered. "Time to wake up..."

"Five more minutes," he moaned turning away from her.

"Okay," she said. "But we're gonna be late for breakfast."

"Holy shit! That's today?" he asked jumping out of bed and scrambling to the bathroom, all the while trying to strip down.

"Yes, it's today," she grinned. The water from the shower turned on and she could hear the curtain being pulled across the metal bar. Another article of clothing was tossed out of the bathroom and he leaped into the shower,

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" he asked over the water.

Mia strode to the entrance of the bathroom, so he could hear her and said, "You just looked so cute, I didn't want to wake you."

"Yeah right," he said sarcastically. "I'll ask again. Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" he wondered.

"Alright, I wanted to watch you squirm," she replied. "I think you're very hot under pressure."

His wet head with shampoo lightly coating it poked out from behind the curtain and he asked, "Really?" Her eyebrows quirked and she gave him a smile. "Okay then," he shrugged taking his head back into the shower.

"And I should warn you," she said as the water turned off.

"Warn me about what?" he asked as the towel disappeared from the rack just beside the shower.

"You have to be good," she replied.

"Why's that?" he wondered.

"Because my mother is going to be there," she said. "And I'm sure she doesn't want to see some dude tonguing her daughter the first time she meets him."

The curtain opened revealing a slightly dripping Riley with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Good point," he answered, climbing out from the bathtub.

"That was a quick shower," she said.

"You have to know that Ben is all about timeliness," he said.

"Ben? Our Ben?" she asked. "Riley did you hit your head in there?"

"No," he answered, "But he is getting better at it."

"True..." she said as she watched him dress quickly. When he was finished, she said. "You did that in under five minutes."

"I've learned," he said smiling.

"Come on," she said taking his hand. "The breakfast place is across town." He nodded as the walked out of their apartment and to his fiery red Ferrari.

--

"What time are you getting up in the morning?" Riley asked his girlfriend.

"I don't know," she replied, brushing her brown bangs from her eyes. "Probably around eight. Ben and I have something to do over at the historical society, remember?"

"Right! I remember that from breakfast," he said turning away from his computer. "Can you wake me up too? I have a book signing tomorrow."

"Sure, hon," she answered. "Do you want me to wake you up when I leave or when I get up to get ready?"

He thought for a second then said, "When you get up to get ready. That way I can have breakfast while you're taking forever in the bathroom."

Scowling lightly, she grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "Ow!" he said as the fluffy object came into contact with his head. "Why are you so mean to me?" he asked rubbing his skull.

"Why are you so mean to me?" she retorted folding her arms.

"Oh, I'm sorry honey," he replied getting off of his computer and walking over to the couch. "I have ideas on how to make it up to you," he said sitting next to her.

"Really? You do?" she asked. "And what might those be?" she wondered.

"You're the treasure hunter," he said. "I'm just to dorky comic relief. You figure it out," he added.

"Shower me with praise, make me dinner, and... buy me something," she said listing a few things.

"All right then," he said with a smile. "Let's get started." Mia laughed.

--

I have to say, I sure am glad I wasn't at the history thing. I would have felt really stupid when they were competing with facts and such. Not to mention, Mia would have taken my head off.

I am however, an accomplished writer (I'd like to think so) and I decided that you needed to know all about it since it pertains to things that happen later in the story. I do have to set it up, like I said before and this is a crucial set up point.

Granted I was having issues of my own but I'll get to that in a minute. For now... Let's meet the bad guy of our story: Mitch Wilkinson. Every story needs a bad guy right?

--

"So," Benjamin Gates said, pushing his glasses farther up on the bridge of his nose, "recapping: the Knights of the Golden Circle were an southern extremist's group operating in the north to subvert Union Forces. Had Thomas not burned the legendary Booth Diary page the killers may have gotten their hands on a vast treasure."

"If they had aquired it," Mia continued, "the Union may well have lost the Civil War. Thank you." She smiled at her father and brother as the audience clapped.

"I want to thank Patrick, Ben and Mia Gates for coming down here today," the man known as Dr. Nichols said. "What a great addition Thomas Gates is to our civil heroes exhibit."

"Thank you," Patrick said. "If only my grandfather could have been here to see something like this." The audience clapped more until someone shouted over the applause.

"What do you think happened to the Booth diary pages that were burned?" the mysterious man asked from the crowd. Everyone in the audience turned to the bald man who had spoken out.

"We may never know," Ben replied.

"Perhaps," he said ambiguously. "Perhaps not. You see I have one of those great-great-grandaddies like yourselves way up in the family tree. His name was Silas Wilkinson," he informed them.

"And?" Mia asked, not bother to hide her annoyance at the man. This was met with an sharp elbow to the ribs from her brother.

"Well," he said continuing his speech as if Mia hadn't spoken. "He tells a story about the night Lincoln was shot. And the way he tells it, the KGC didn't seek out Thomas Gates regarding the treasure map that night. It was Thomas who called the meeting. It was Thomas who called the meeting to plan the assassination of Lincoln."

The crowd murmered amongst themselves and Mia's eyes widened. She didn't say anything because her brother and father had said it all for her. "How absurd," he said over the audience's muttering.

"That's a lie!" Patrick added.

"Ladies and gentleman," he said coming closer to the railing and sticking his hand in the pocket of his coat. "I present to you one of the missing diary pages of the infamous John Wilkes Booth with the name Thomas Gates written on a list with the names of all the other conspirators." He pulled out a wrinkled half-page in a plastic bag and held it out for the crowd to see. The murmurs got louder as Dr. Nichols tried to calm the crowd.

He told the Gates family they would look at the page as soon as everyone else was out of the auditorium. People left in boatloads, still muttering and looking up at the stage and the man behind the railing.

He came down onto the stage as soon as the auditorium was empty and handed the page to Dr. Nichols. He slipped on gloves and gingerly removed the half-page from the plastic casing.

Mia was apprehensively pacing behind her brother and he said, "Mia, please stop. Just, cool it," he said.

"Cool it?" she whispered fiercely. "You want me to cool it? After what he just said?"

"Well, don't get worked up yet. It could be a fake," Ben said.

"Or it could get worse," she murmured, worried.

Ben rolled his eyes and looked back to Dr. Nichols. "Latin," the man said reading the page.

"Booth was a student of Latin," the man, whom Mia learned was named Mitch, explained. "He shouted-"

"-sic Sempar tyrannis after her shot Lincoln," Ben finished.

"Thus always to tyrants," Patrick translated.

"We know," Mia said. "We're history buffs too, in case you haven't noticed," she added bitterly.

Ben looked up at the image on the overhead screen thoughtfully and mumbled aloud, "Thomas Gates, artifax."

"Designer or mastermind," Mitch said.

"Would you stop doing that?" Mia said angrily. "We're not stupid."

"I never said you were," he retorted.

"You sure are acting like it," she spat.

"Mia," Ben said and she stopped talking, but with a reluctant, angry look on her face and her arms folded tightly in front of her.

"He must have planned the assassination," Mitch continued. Mia opened her mouth to retort something unpleasant in his direction, but Ben shot her a glare and she closed it again.

"But it could mean mastermind of anything," Ben said, trying to conceal the fear in his voice that his great-great-grandfather really plotted to kill a president. "It's burnt out right there," he said pointed to the place where the old page and writing disappeared into nothing.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice vacant of any sympathy what-so-ever. "I can only imagine how hard this must be for you."

"I'll just see if this page matches the diary," Mr. Nichols said seeing that Mia was about to retorted again. With great care, he picked up the page and transferred it over to the diary.

"This is an outrage!" Patrick yelled in anger. "You're calling my grandfather a liar!"

"With all due respect, you're calling my great-great-granddaddy a liar," Mitch replied.

"Yes, Sir I am," the elder Gates man said. "This isn't some garbage out of a history book! My grandfather told me this story himself! I could see the truth of it in his eyes!" Mia scoffed to herself. _So I can't yell at him, but Dad can? Gee thanks Ben, _she thought bitterly.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said, still with no care in his voice. "I truly am."

"Oh, please," she muttered but didn't press knowing her brother would get on her case.

Dr. Nichols wasn't paying any attention but was trying to match the page. Much to the Gates's dismay, the rip lines on the page and in the diary matched perfectly with one another. "We'll do tests to authenticate it but..." he said.

"It can't be..." Patrick muttered. Mitch looked smug and Mia was glaring daggers into his back. If looks could kill, there would be one less man in the world.

--

I told you Mia would have taken my head off... She was _pissed_. And I mean more than usual. And we met our bad guy. Did you like him? Me either.

But, moving on. I too was having some issues of my own. No one wanted my book. That was embarrassing... Our days combined were just going from bad to worse...

--

"Are you Ben Gates?" a woman asked. Riley was sitting in a Borders surrounded by his own books which he was signing. No one had come up to him and the last girl to ask if he was Ben Gates walked away because he said no.

"Yes," he replied taking off his glasses. "Yes I am."

"Do you own a red Ferrari?" she wondered picking up one of his books.

"Yes I do," he replied.

"Well, it's being towed," she said looking out the window. He looked too, smiled at her, then jumped from his chair, sending it toppling to the floor as he ran outside.

"No, no, no!" he said running after the tow truck. "That's my car!" But seeing as he wasn't going to be able to catch up with the truck stopped and stomped his foot in anger. Yanking out his cell phone, he dialed the number for his accountant.

She told him that the IRS had impounded his vehicle because the money he had invested for him were bounced back. They had also gave him a fine. Hanging up the phone, he sighed. Crap... This was gonna suck.

His phone rang again. The caller ID said Mia, someone familiar to talk to. "Hey," he said. "What's up?" Mia started to babble angrily on the other end and he only caught a few words. Apparently the historical conference didn't go as well as planned. She then took a deep breath and asked about him.

"Well, the Ferrari was impounded by the IRS and I was slapped with a huge fine plus interest!" She said she was sorry and he said, "That's fine. I may take a little while coming home though." He listened again and said, "Okay, I'll see you later. Love you." And he hung up.

After he got the large cardboard cutout of himself and most of his books put from the store, he started down the street, people staring at the oddities he was carrying.

He finally reached his apartment only to find Ben sitting on his door step, glasses on the bridge of his nose, reading a book that was in his lap. "Where's the Ferrari?" he asked, when he look his glasses off.

"IRS impounded it," he said for the second time that day. "My accountant set up a cooperation on an island that didn't exist and assured me that was now rich people do it. Then I got audited and slapped with a huge fine, plus interest!" he said with fake happiness putting the cardboard cut out of himself down on the sidewalk. "You know what taxes are on five million dollars?" he asked. Before Ben could say anything, he answered himself. "Six million dollars."

Ben just nodded and pretended to understand. "But enough about me. What's new with you?" he asked knowing full well he was about to fully learn what happened at the conference.

"Well, my girlfriend kicked me out," he started much to the surprise of Riley, "I'm living with my father, and my family killed President Lincoln."

"All right," he said with a fake grin. "Good to know."

"Where's Mia?" he asked, his face puzzled.

"She told me she was out. Needed to clear her head," Riley said. "I can only imagine it had something to do with the fact you think your family killed Lincoln. She should be home soon. And to what I owed you the pleasure of this fantastic visit from my best friend slash brother of my girlfriend?"

"Oh, you're home!" someone exclaimed as they heard a car door slam. Both men looked over to see Mia climbing onto the sidewalk from her car. She bent down, kissed Riley and hugged Ben. "Wait," she said pulling away from her brother. "What are you doing here?"

Ben turned to Riley and answered his question. "I need your help."

"With what?" he asked. Ben smiled.

--

A/N: So here you go! Did you like it? Hate it? Review if you want. Or keep reading... Or stop. It doesn't really matter. Thanks for reading the first bit of my story.


	2. You Want Me To WHAT?

Disclaimer: Nothing you see or recognize is mine... Please don't sue me.

A/N: Sorry for the few week's wait. I had some things I had to take care of. Also, I' going to try and update all of my other stories because I have been severely neglecting them. Thanks for reading this story anyway.

--

More words... If you've talked to me before, you'd know that I my belief is that words can lead to events you can never take back. Ben told me he needed my help. (Man, if I had a dime every time he told me that... I wouldn't need to pay off that fine...) First, it launched me into a treasure hunt I really didn't want to go on in the first place, then he makes me break into his own home. And this leads to whole other problems...

But enough of my ramblings. I'll just get back to the story. I'm sure that's what you want.

--

"You want me to _what_?" Riley asked with a clearly offended look on his face.

"I need you to break into my house. Well, Abigail's house since she changed the alarm code," Ben said.

"I am so not going break into your house," he said. "I thought we were done with all the illegal stuff!"

"We were... Until I need to see the diary page," he said. "I need her key card to get access."

"Why don't you just ask Abigail for it?" he wondered. Ben blinked in surprise as if he hadn't thought of this before.

"Because she wouldn't give it to me," he said. "Just help me out. Mia, can I have some backup here?"

"Actually, I agree with Riley," she said. "Why don't you just ask Abigail?"

"You know, I really hate this. This you guys dating thing... You always take each other's sides. It makes me feel left out," he said. "And I already told you, she'd tell me no. Please Riley?" he asked. "Please?"

"Oh, Ben..." Riley said. After taking one last look at his puppy dog face, he said, "Fine, fine. When are we doing this?" Ben smiled.

"Tonight," he replied.

"Well, I'm coming with you," Mia said. "I'll have to make sure you don't commit any more felonies." Ben gave a sarcastic laugh and she smiled. "I feel like Mom."

"Well you won't tonight," he said. Mia sighed and looked between both men.

"We might as well get ready," she said and Ben smiled again.

--

"So, I'll probably regret asking this," Riley said as he worked on the alarm code in Ben's old house, trying to disable it before it went off, "but what happened between you and Abigail?"

"I'd actually like to know that too," Mia said, crossing her arms and glancing out the glass front door to make sure Abigail was not driving up.

"I don't know, you know," he said. "She started using the word 'so' a lot."

"'So'?" he asked plugging in another piece of equipment.

"So, I guess my opinion doesn't matter," he said as if imitating what his ex was saying. "So, I guess you're always right. _So_, I guess I'm invisible."

Mia raised her eyebrows and said, "You seriously need a crash course in the speech of women."

"Are you volunteering?" he asked.

"As if," she replied.

"Maybe they should start offering that as a course in high school," Riley said. "You know, instead of Spanish or French, they could offer Women. It might help us all, all the men in the world. We won't say anything offending."

"I happen to like French," Mia said indignantly.

"I never said you didn't," Riley answered.

"So, I've moved out," Ben continued, "and we're dividing up the furniture."

"Women," Riley said packing up his equipment as soon as he got the alarm code. "Can't live with them-"

"Excuse me?" Mia asked her boyfriend, her eye brows raised.

"-if they change the alarm codes," he ended. "You didn't let me finish."

"Well, in that case, you're off the hook!" Mia said brightly.

"Really?" he asked.

"No!" she said, just as brightly and turned around to walk away.

Riley sighed. "You did that in 25 seconds," Ben said, complementing him in finding the alarm code in under 30 seconds.

"That's why I tell people to get a dog," Riley said before he realized he said it.

"And what am I? A sheep?" Mia asked.

"What I meant was-" he started to say, but Ben cut him off.

"Riley, Riley," he said, "I found that when you're in a hole, the best thing to do is stop digging. And I'm speaking from expirence." The younger man nodded slowly, and followed his best friend and possibly ex-girlfriend up the stairs.

Ben rifled through a few drawers before he found what he was looking for. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough because a car drove up the driveway indicating that Abigail was home. They were busted. "That's not Abigail's car," Mia said, her eyebrows raised.

"She's on a date," Ben grumbled.

Both she and another man got out of his car, and all three watched curiously as they exchanged a few words and walked closer to the house. "That... The White House Guy," Riley said looking over Ben's shoulder. He laughed and said, "He's weird." Mia elbowed him in the gut and he looked offended. "What?"

"Do you have any sense of when to _stop talking_?" she asked. He looked confused and she groaned in anger, following Ben out of the office. Riley followed her, but still looked dreadfully perplexed.

"Quick," he heard Mia say, grabbing him by the arm. "In here." She pulled him into a closet that was rather cramped.

"This bring back any memories?" he asked, referring to when they were trying to escape Ian, their old enemy, and his men.

"Well," she whispered, "If you mean being cramped in a tiny space with you breathing on my neck and your face dangerously close to mine, then yes. It does."

"Except then it was awkward," he replied.

But their conversation was interrupted with a call of, "Riley! Mia, get out here!"

"Busted," he whispered. He squeezed past her and walked out of the tiny closet. "Hey!" he said with a fake smile plastered all over his face. "What are you doing here?" Mia groaned lightly and shook her head, but he continued. "I mean it's your house, but..." He stopped, apparently taking Ben's previous words to heart. "I sent you a copy of my book. Did you-?"

"No," she said, clearly annoyed, "I haven't read it yet."

"Hi," Riley said to the man standing awkwardly with Abigail. "I'm Riley. We met at the..."

"Right," the man said, shaking Riley's out stretched hand. "You're Ben and Mia's assistant."

"What?" Riley asked, blinking in surprise.

But the man said, "I should go."

"I'm sorry," she said leading him to the door.

"Dinner?" he whispered. "Tomorrow?"

"I actually already have plans for tomorrow," she said.

"Oh you do?" Ben asked. Abigail rightfully ignored him and pressed on.

"But I'm free on Friday," she said, clearly making Ben angry. He kissed her on the cheek and walked out.

"Awkward..." Riley mumbled, sending Mia's elbow into his chest again. He winced, pressing the forming bruise on his chest.

"I cannot believe you broke in!" the blond shouted before the door was even closed. "What did you take?" she asked coming face to face with her ex.

"Just my things..." Ben lied badly.

"Hand it over Ben," she said holding out her hand, palm up.

Ben sighed and pulled out the little piece of plastic he wanted to take. "I just need to see the Booth Diary page."

She took the ID card and started to walk away. "You saw the page yourself! Mia saw it too! Did you see anything?"

"Well... no but-" she started but Abigail cut her off.

"See!" she said. "There is no treasure map on it!" Riley slunk to the back of the group, trying to make himself invisible.

"Actually, it's a cipher leading to a treasure map," he corrected, as if it made any difference. "Did anyone spectral image the page?" he asked.

"There was no need," she answered. "The ink on the page was clearly visible."

"But it could have been erased," Ben said.

"Or faded!" Mia added.

"Come on!" he said, almost whining now. "You're the head of historical documents! It'S your job."

"It's not my department," she said.

"That department reports to your department!" Ben retorted following her down the hall way. "You can have the Boston Tea Tables!" Ben said, stopping.

This caused Abigail to stop in her tracks. She turned slowly, and walked towards him. "Both of them?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

"Both of them," he agreed.

"Fine," she said. "Come on. We don't have a lot of time." Ben smiled back at Riley and Mia, who gave him a thumbs up. Even Mia knew that Abigail wanted those tables. It was the perfect way to get her to give in. Although, she wasn't quite sure what they'd find on the half a page...

--

I don't think that Ben really likes to take his own advice. I mean, when Abby was getting angry, all he did was correct her. It's one of the few of Ben's flaws. Though, I think Mia would argue that he has a few more. And he whines...

Speaking for myself, I didn't really want to spend some ungodly amount of time staring at an old piece of paper... It sounded boring. And it was. But what we found was definitely interesting.

--

A/N: Did you like it? Hate it? Review if you want. Thanks for reading though. ;D


	3. To Paris!

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine sadly. Though I do wish it was.

A/N: So here's the newest chapter. Sorry it took me so long to get out. I've been trying to focus in on my other stories but I just haven't got the right words to say what I want to happen. I know where I'm going, I'm just not sure on how I'm gonna get there... So I've trying to figure that out plus I have to get ready for school to kick back up so I desperately trying to get out one chapter for all my incomplete stories, if you're reading them. It's really okay if you're not. And I'm gonna stop talking now so you can read the story. You all don't need to know about my problems.

Although, while we're on the subject, I think I have a family of spiders living in my bed. No joke. I woke up and had like five bites on my legs, one on my arm, and one on my face. How unconscious does one have to be not to notice all of this. And they are itching like crazy! AHHH. Sorry. That's it for my rambling. And I think I've broken my own record for the longest author's note ever. Review if you want. Thanks for reading. ;D

--

"We've been looking at this thing for hours," Riley whined getting up from his chair to stretch his legs. "There's nothing there."

"Gee thanks, Debby Downer," Mia said twisting her back. A loud crack sounded and she sighed contently.

"Well look at it this way," Riley said to Ben. "In a hundred years, no one's gonna remember anyone involved in the Lincoln assassination except Booth."

"That's not true," Ben said, running a hand over his face fighting off a migraine. "Do you know the expression: 'his name is mud'?"

"Yes of course," Riley replied.

"Really?" Mia asked, surprised. "Do you know where the expression originates from?"

"Does anyone but you two?" he asked sarcastically.

"Cute..." she whispered, also with sarcasm.

"Dr. Samuel Mudd," Ben began to explain, "was convicted of being apart of Booth's crew. The evidence was circumstantial and he was later pardoned."

"But it didn't matter," Mia continued. "Mudd's name still lives in infamy."

"And I will not let Thomas Gates name be mud," Ben said.

"Ben look at this," Abigail said. She had missed the entire exchange and was too busy looking on something she thought could be a possible clue. She pointed to a smudgy looking thing near a few words written on the page.

"Now that's something," Ben said.

"Yeah," added Riley leaning in. "It says 'smudge'." Mia narrowed her eyes and looked over her shoulder. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing," Mia said looking in.

"She's right," Ben said. "It's residual ink from the facing page. Flip it."

Abigail typed on the keyboard facing the screen and flipped the page. She contrasted the light and letters started to appear. "It's a cipher!" Mia squealed excitedly.

"See how the letters are coupled?" Ben asked. "Playfair ciphers couple their letters," he explained. "Can I get a print out of this?"

Abigail nodded and hit the key so the image would print, but she also said, "Unless you decode the message, this does not prove a theory."

"That's okay," Ben said, "That's okay. All we need is a five letter key word."

_Like that's going to be easy..._Mia thought bitterly. Her boyfriend however was thinking out loud. "There's a million words in the English language, so let's start at the beginning. 'A', uh... 'Aardvark'? No, it's too long."

"Ben," Abigail said softly. "I don't think this is going to stop Dr. Nichols from announcing the finding of the page tomorrow."

"No," he replied. "Can't you tell them to hold off. Until I prove Thomas Gates's innocence?" he asked.

"What if he isn't innocent?" she asked.

"Now who's the Debby Downer?" Mia asked. Abigail narrowed her eyes and glared at her.

--

Sorry I was so whiny before. But we really had been looking at that paper for like twelve hours. Okay, maybe not that long, but it was a long freakin' time. Trust me. It sounds so much shorter when it's on paper... At least you can skip ahead if it gets boring. I lived this. That's a luxury I didn't have at the time.

But enough about that... I'm sure you'd want to know what the cipher gave us, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It's all about the clues... What about me? Never mind. Here's more of the story....

--

"Bacon," Riley said typing the obscure word into the cipher decoder he had on his computer.

"Bacon?" Mia asked.

"It's possible," he retorted.

"If the someone who made the cipher is a pork lover," Mia snapped.

"Someone's cranky," he said. "Did you not get enough sleep last night?"

"Bite me," she said standing up to go and get more tea. She hadn't been drinking coffee lately which Riley found weird, because she was addicted to the caffeine-filled drink, but he didn't think much of it. There were more important things at hand and he didn't have much time to ponder his girlfriend's beverage choices.

"What was that?" Ben asked as he leaned over Riley, who was now typing in 'baron' on his keyboard.

"I have no idea," Riley answered as the cipher loaded. "She's been really moody the past couple of days. Everything I say she wants to bite my head off for it." He leaned back and whispered, "I think she's PMSing."

"Don't let her hear you say that," Ben warned. "You'll be sleeping on the couch for two weeks."

"I don't exactly plan on letting her in on my suspicions," Riley said, then groaning because the last word he tried didn't pan out. "And I don't have anything yet."

"That's okay," Ben said. "Keep at it. And tread softly."

As soon as Ben left, Mia walked back into the room with a cup of tea in her hand. Riley didn't say anything, knowing that if he did, she'd probably slap him. Riley knew enough not to kick an angry bull. "Sorry I snapped at you," she sighed kissing him on the cheek.

"That's okay," he said turning to face her. "You want to tell me what's got you so upset?" he asked.

"Not really," she replied. "But I'll tell you later."

"I can live with that," Riley replied. He turned back to his computer, but before he could type anything else Ben and his father burst into the room with another option.

"Try 'death'," Ben said.

"Excuse me?" Riley asked, confused.

"Morbid much?" Mia asked.

"The key to the cipher," Ben said. "It's death."

Riley did as he was told as Mia questioned her brother. "What makes you think that?" she asked.

"Before Thomas died, he grabbed his son's hand and said 'the debt that all men pay'," Ben explained. "The debt that all men pay is death. And that's five letters."

"Genius!" she said.

The letters from the code word popped up at the bottom of Riley's computer screen and he tried to decipher what they said. He was babbling and Mia fought off the strange urge to laugh hysterically at her boyfriend's attempts to decipher the code. "It's gibberish," he said, feeling defeated.

"Laboulaye!" Mia shouted, making sense of what Riley was babbling.

"Laboulaye!" Riley shouted. "Who's that?" Mia scowled, her good mood gone... for the time being.

"Where's your phone?" Ben was asking his father, ignoring Riley's questions.

"I don't know," Patrick replied. "I can't find anything in this mess."

"It's temporary until I find a new place," Ben said rummaging underneath some strange artifact he had.

"Find the old one," Patrick called after his son as he moved to the next room. "I like her."

"Oooh," Mia whispered to Riley. "Got Daddy's stamp of approval. That's big."

"And you didn't?" Riley asked turning around in his chair.

"I'm dating you," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You know sometimes your sarcasm hurts," he said.

"I'm sorry," she said kissing him. He didn't say anything and she kissed him again.

"Okay," he said with a grin. "I accept your apology."

"We only got a partial on the next word..." Ben said to the phone walking back into the room. "LAD... Lad..."

"Ladder?" Mia asked, though something told her that wasn't the answer.

"Aladdin?" Riley asked trying to get in on the conversation.

"Dude," Mia said. "Shut up. I love you, but seriously, think before you speak."

"Thank you, Abigail!" Ben said interrupting what would have been an argument. "Laboulaye Lady... You know what this means? There is a map on the-" But he stopped and looked down at the phone. "She hung up on me," he said with a laugh.

"She took your call," Patrick retorted. "That's a good sign."

"So you said 'Laboulaye Lady'," Mia said. "Does that mean what I think it means?" She looked between Ben and her father to find them both nodding. "There's a clue on the Statue of Liberty?"

"Essentially yeah," Ben said.

"But the question is," Patrick interrupted her next statement, "which Statue of Liberty."

"Exactly," Riley agreed. "Just to be clear, there is more than one?" he asked the rest of the family.

"There are three actually, Riley," Patrick said. "One is in New York. One is the Luxembourg gardens."

"But he only refered to one as his lady," Ben interrupted his father.

Again Mia was left looking back and forth between her father and brother but this time it was with a smile on her face. "Really?" she asked Ben, clearly excited. Ben was smiling and nodding. "Really really?" Ben nodded again and she squealed. She jumped up and down holding onto Riley's arm who was still baffled a to what was happening.

"What? What? What?" he asked. "I don't get it."

"We get to go to Paris!" she squealed to her boyfriend. "I have to go pack." And she ran up the stairs leaving Riley wondering what had happened and Ben chuckling at his sister's excitement.

--

And the plot thickens! So yeah, she was pumped we got to go to Paris. To be honest, I was too. So all in all, in a few days we figured out there was a cipher and we figured out the cipher too. Not a bad way to spend the week.

Although, Mia's behavior was getting pretty bizarre. I didn't really know what to think of it, but I guess now that I know it makes sense... Oh, you thought I was gonna tell you? Ha ha, yeah right. It's another part of the mystery of this treasure hunt. Although... you may be smarter than I was. But that doesn't matter. You won't know for sure until I tell you so that gives me some power... I think... Oh, forget it. I don't even know why I try...

--

"Laboulaye had to leave a clue somewhere on here!" Ben said as he watched Riley pilot the small portable helicopter. "Zoom in on the torch," he ordered to him. "It is like impossible what you're doing right now..." he said to his friend. All the other man did was smile.

Someone started to speak French behind him and Ben turned to see two police officers getting off their bikes and walking over to them. "Uhh, Mia?" Ben asked. "I think you're on."

"_Excusez-moi l'officier ? Se trouve présent un problème ?_" she asked in French. (Excuse me officer? Is there a problem?)

"_Je vous vois n'avoir aucun problème dérangeant le matin plaisant tout le monde avec votre bourdonnement là_," he answered back. (I see you have no problem disturbing everyone's pleasant morning with your buzzing there.)

"What'd he say?" Ben whispered.

"He told me that he sees we have no problem disturbing everyone's morning with our buzzing," she translated. "_Je suis désolé ainsi. Nous ne sommes pas d'ici. Je ne me suis pas rendu compte qu'il y avait un problème_," she answered back to him. (I'm so sorry. We're not from around here. I didn't think there was a problem.)

"_D'où sont vous_ ?" he asked. (Where are you from?)

"_L'Amérique_," she answered. (America.)

"_Vous parlez le français très bien pour être un américain," _he complimented. (You speak French very well for being an American.)

"_Merci très beaucoup. J'ai étudié le français pendant quelque temps dans l'école et francais culrure. Savez-vous combien de notre government était sous l'influence de votre homme Montisque _?" she asked. (Thank you so much. I studied French in school and some French culture. Do you know how much our government was influenced by your man Montisque?)

"_Vous connaissez Montisque _?" he wondered. (You know Montisque?)

"_Oui. Il a mis n'est en haut pour qu'aucun homme_-" she began and he finished. (Yes. It's set up so that no man-)

"_-le besoin a peur d'un autre." _(-need be afraid of another.)

"_Oui_," she said with a grin. They continued their conversation lightly going back and forth until Riley ran back to Ben with the clue in his hand.

"I hope you read French," he whispered.

"I don't," Ben replied. "But Mia does," he said pointing over to where she was speaking very fast to the other man, beaming.

"Do you know what she's saying?" Riley asked.

"No clue," Ben replied.

"_Donc je suis vraiment désolé du bourdonnement," _she started to finished._"L'hélicoptère est mon fiancé et il est un peu idiot." _The two officers laughed a little and she continued._"Je lui ai dit de ne pas l'apporter, mais... Il ne m'a pas écouté. Vous pouvez juste me donner le ticket_." (So I am really sorry about the buzzing. The helicopter is my fiance's and he's kind of crazy. I told him not to bring it but... he just didn't listen to me. You can just give me the ticket.)

"_Ne vous en inquiétez pas. J'espère que vous deux avez une grande vie. C'était la réunion agréable vous!_" he said. (Don't worry about it. I hope you have a wonderful life. It was nice meeting you!)

"_Merci. Également. Ayez un jour grand!_" she said waving as they drove off. (Thank you! Likewise. Have a great day!) As soon as they were gone, she turned to Riley and said through clenched teeth, "You owe me big time."

"Why?" Riley asked.

"I just got your ass out of a ticket," she replied.

"Thank you, honey," he said kissing her forehead.

"Mia," Ben said taking the screen from Riley's hand. "Can you read this?"

"Can I read this?" she asked yanking the screen away from him. "Of course I can read this. 'Across the ocean these twins stand resolute to find what we have been looking for. Laboulaye 1876,'" she read.

"These twins stand resolute..." Ben said. "Resolute twins... Resolute."

"It's not gonna mean anything different even if you keep saying it," she snapped.

"Jeez, what's up with you?" Riley asked. "First you snap at me then Ben? Did you not get enough sleep or something?"

"Nothing," she said.

"Right..." Riley answered skeptically. "And I'm the Abominable Snowman!" She glared and he said in a softer tone, "Come on. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she repeated.

"HMS Resolute!" Ben exclaimed causing both Riley and Mia to look at him. He was obviously oblivious to the argument that was ensuing before him. "A British ship that got lost in the arctic. It was recovered and Queen Elizabeth had made into two desks. Viola! Resolute twins! The nearest desk is in Buckingham Palace," he said. "Riley, how fast can we get to London?"

"I don't know," he said.

"I'll call a cab and we can go back to the hotel," Mia said in a pleasant manner, very different from the tone she had used mere seconds before. "We can figure it out there." Ben and Riley exchanged looks at her sudden change in demeanor, but shrugged and watched her pull out her cell phone and start speaking in French again to the person on the other end. She hung up and turned back to the two men. "They'll be here in a few minutes."

Riley nodded and went to stand next to her to wait for the cab.

--

A/N: So sorry if I got some of the French wrong. You can't always trust the online translators. I hope you totally won't crucify me if I did. And If you tell me I'll change it. Review if you want to . I guess the first person to guess what Mia's secret is will win... something. Tell me what you want and I can probably get it in there... Maybe. Though, I think I've made it pretty obvious so even a dork like Riley could figure it out (But he a cute dork...) I hope. I'm not exactly stealthy. And I think I'm just rambling, so I'm gonna stop now and let you go on with your lives. If you even stopped to read this... Okay, okay. I'm done... Now.


	4. Breaking Into the Palace

Disclaimer: Not a thing is mine... sadly...

A/N: So, here you go. I was in such a good mood after my first day of school I decided to give you an extra long chapter. Actually, that's not really true... I just couldn't really find a good place to end it so it's super long. Review if you feel the need to. ;D

--

"Can you get a layout of the Palace?" Ben asked leaning over Riley who was on his computer. "And where's Mia?" he said looking around the large hotel room.

"I don't know," Riley replied. "And yes I can." His fingers flew over the keyboard as he pulled up a search engine and typed in 'Buckingham Palace Layout'.

"You don't know where your girlfriend is, Riley?" Ben asked. "That's kind of sad."

"I think she ate something last night that didn't agree with her," he said. "She's probably in the bathroom."

"Why do you say that?" Ben asked again.

"She was up all night feeling nauseous," he answered. "Apparently, she lost it now."

"Okay then," Ben replied. "So what's the easiest way to get to the Queen's study?"

"Well," his friend replied pointing at the diagram on the screen, "the elevator gets you close, but the only direct access is through security."

"That should be exciting," Ben muttered.

"What should be exciting?" Mia asked walking into the room and sitting down on a chair next to Riley. Gently, he rubbed her back with his fingers.

"You feeling okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied with a smile. "What should be exciting?" she asked again.

"The only direct access to the Queen's Study is through the Security office," Ben smiled leaning on the table in front of her.

"Oh..." she moaned. "This is gonna be fun..." Before the men could respond to her comment, Ben's phone rang. When he checked the ID, it said DAD, so his quickly picked it up.

"Hi, Dad," Ben said. He listened for a moment, then he got a panicked look on his face. "Call the police. We're coming home."

Mia looked at Riley in alarm, and he turned around in his chair and asked much calmer than she would have, "What happened?"

Ben's face calmed a little and he said, "Okay. We're in London. We're going to Buckingham Palace. We have an appointment with the Curator tomorrow afternoon." He listened for another minute then said, "Bye." And he hung up the phone. "Someone's after the treasure," Ben informed them.

"Of course someone's after the treasure," Riley replied shrugging his shoulders. "It's the axiom of treasure hunting."

"What happened to Dad?" Mia forced.

"Someone broke into his house, but nothing was taken and he's fine, so don't worry," he informed his sister. She calmed immediately. "We need to hurry and see that desk," Ben said to Riley.

"Yeah," Riley said with a hint of sarcasm. "We wouldn't want to miss that appointment." And he gave a funny look. "By the way," he said to Mia, "if you're not feeling well, I don't want you to come."

"Oh, please Riley," she said. "I've endured worse." He nodded and they started to formulate a plan.

--

Now does this look familiar? Yes, that it does. Except this time, it was so much more entertaining. And there was less shooting! That's already a bonus.

And what was with the lying to his father thing? An appointment? Please... The last time we had an appointment with any curator, it didn't exactly go as planned. *cough* *cough* Abigail *cough*. Sorry, I think I'm getting a cold.

But anyway, I'm kind of excited to get to this part of the story. I may even tell it uninterrupted... Here's wishing. So, here you go.

--

The next day, they arrived at the Palace precisely on time. Ben and Mia went a separate way than Riley. While he was busy setting up his equipment, Mia was walking into a room just beside the main hall. But Ben was wearing a microphone and earwig, so she could communicate with both him and Riley in some other part of the castle.

"_It's teatime chaps..." _she heard Riley say over the microphone.

"Yeah, that's not weird at all," she said to him.

"_And yet you love me anyway," _he said with the faint tapping of keys in the background. Mia smiled and turned to look out at Ben, but what she saw made her heart launch into her throat.

"Oh..." she said turning around. "We have a slight problem at three o'clock Ben." She saw him turn in the opposite direction she meant and she whispered fiercely, "My three o'clock!" He turned again in the wrong way and she sighed. "Oh, for God's sake Ben just turn around!"

"Abigail!" she heard him exclaim.

"_Abigail?"_ Riley asked.

"Abigail," Mia confirmed. It was then she saw a man staring at her.

"Hi," she whimpered waving a little. The man shot her a weird look and walked away. "You know people are starting to think I'm crazy," but no one was listening to her. They were trying to figure out why Abigail was there.

"_What is she doing here?"_ Riley asked.

"What are you doing here?" Ben asked.

"You're dad called me," she replied. "Said your next clue was here."

"_Drop her!"_ Riley said.

"Lose her!" Mia agreed.

"Look, I want to help," she said to Ben. Mia was discretely making her way nearer to her brother while still listening in on the conversation.

"That's very nice," Ben said, "but it's kind of a bad time right now."

"A bad time? Right now?" she asked with a small chuckle.

"It's a bad time," Ben whispered. Mia tried not to smile as she thought of the look on her brother's face.

"Okay," she replied laughing in slight disbelief, "I just flew all the way to London to offer my help and now you don't need it?"

"Ben," Mia said, sing-song with clenched teeth. "Remember the plan..."

"You're the one making a scene right now," Ben said.

"I-I am not making a scene right now!" she said wide-eyed.

"_No we want to make a scene,"_ Riley reminded him.

"Well fine!" Ben yelled so everyone in the foyer could hear him. "If that's what you want let's have it out right now!"

"_Ah, so subtle..."_ Riley said with a clear smile in his voice.

"But since when has Ben been known for his subtlety?" Mia asked.

"_Good point,"_ he replied. _"When are you gonna jump in there?"_

"Give them a few minutes," she whispered looking on curiously.

"Ben, what are you doing?" Abigail asked, her voice hushed in direct contrast to Ben's.

"Oh, let me guess!" he shouted still very loud. All the chatter in the room died away as they listened to the fight ensuing before them. "It's the wrong time! It's the wrong place! I'm wrong again!" He then started stomping down the stairs. "Wrong about us. Wrong about Thomas Gates. Wrong that you'd like the Queen Anna chair!" he yelled pointing up at her from the landing of the staircase.

"You're wrong to assume I'd like the chair!" she shouted at him.

"You see?" he asked a crowd of people. "Look at this. This is more interesting than that," he said wrapping his arm around a man who was looking at an artifact. He looked around in discomfort at the bizarre man who was now wrapping his arms around him. "She thinks even when I'm right, I'm wrong! Abigail, just because I answer a question quickly doesn't make it wrong!"

"Not if the right answer is something we need to figure out as a couple! That's what couples do!" she shouted, also coming down the stairs to Ben who had just recently taken his arms from around the stranger.

"Excuse me, sir," one of the security guards said in a British accent. "You and your Missus, take it outside."

"Now look what you've done!" Ben shouted at a stunned Abigail. "You've brought the little bobbies down on us! You take the Missus outside. I'm staying right here." And he swung his leg over the banister and slid down. "Wee!" he shouted.

"Good afternoon, Sir," another guard said at the bottom of the banister.

"Hello," Ben replied in a tacky British accent.

"Been drinking, have we?" he asked.

"Just a nip. Just popped down to the pub for a pint. Bit of all right," he replied in the same British accent.

"I did mention to you that Ben wasn't really related to me right?" Mia asked.

"_Yes, actually,"_ he replied._ "While we were breaking into another building of national importance."_

"Going to arrest a man for that?" Ben kept going.

"Oh, good," she said. "That means I don't have to repeat myself."

But Ben wasn't finished. "Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whiskey?"

"All right," Mia said. "I'm going in."

"_Enjoy yourself,"_ Riley said.

"Oh, I will," she muttered walking up to the argument. "Excuse me!" she shouted forcing her way in between the officer and her brother, immediately transforming into character. "Excuse me Officer, I am so sorry about him. Ben, what the hell are you doing?" she asked. Her nose wrinkled at the smell of vodka on his breath . "Have you been drinking?" she asked.

"Maybe..." he said with a grin.

"All right, we're going home," she said taking a hold of his wrist. "Again, I'm terribly sorry about this. Our Nana isn't well and he's taking it really hard."

"Mia, you're here too?" Abigail asked.

"You can stay out of this, Princess," she said pointing at the blond.

"Looks like someone's in trouble..." Ben sang with a smile.

"That's enough, Sir," the officer said to Ben.

"Bangers and mash," he said.

"Sir," warned the guard.

"Ben!" Mia said.

"Bubbles and squeak. Smoke eel pie," he continued.

"Ben!" Mia said again.

"Haggis!" he shouted.

"That's it!" the livid officer shouted. "Dismount the banister!" And he took Ben by the arm. Another officer took Mia and Abigail and dragged them along with him.

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!" Ben sang loudly.

"Ben, shut up!" Mia shouted.

"Like that's going to help!" Abigail objected.

"You too!"

"Here they are all standing in a row!" Ben continued to sing as if neither of them had spoken. "Big ones, small ones, some as big as you head!"

As Ben continued his random yelling, Mia heard Riley say over the mic, "That was brilliant." Mia had to stifle a laugh at her boyfriend's comment and continued responding to whatever Ben and Abigail were yelling at each other.

Most of it was gibber-gabber and you could only pick out a few words from each person. "Ooh, so I'm wrong again?" Ben asked as they put their belongings into a tub to walk through a metal detector.

"Now, you see there you are correct," Abigail responded.

"I can't believe you actually dated each other!" Mia shouted over them.

"Capital!" Ben yelled. "Topper!"

"Your mother told me about you," Abigail said.

"Our mother?" Mia said. "Our mother didn't tell you anything."

The rest of the argument was garbled noise as they were thrown into the holding cell. To get their attention, the security guard had to yell. "Oi! You all stay put!"

"No, no, no!" Ben yelled after him. "Don't leave me in here!" he shouted hitting the fencing making the microphone screech.

"_Wow..."_ Riley muttered rubbing his ear.

"You can say that again," Mia muttered when the guard was gone.

"What is going on?" Abigail asked in an angry whisper.

"I'm sorry for getting you roped into this, but you were excellent back there," Ben said with a smile.

The blonde straightened up and smiled. "Thank you."

"You too Mia. Very nice inserting yourself in there."

"Thank you, Ben," Mia said.

"When did you find out it was a fake argument?" Ben asked.

"When did you figure out I was really arguing during the fake argument?" Abigail asked him.

"Right in the middle there. The part when I 'always assume that I'm right'," he said with air quotes. "Which I don't get, because even when I assume that I'm right and it turns out that I am, I'm correct no?"

"Can you get us out of here, sweet pea?" Mia asked. "I don't think I can take much more of this."

"_Working on it, pumpkin,"_ Riley replied.

"When you reach a conclusion without asking and you happen to be right, you got lucky," the blonde woman cleared up.

Ben thought about this and then said, "I get lucky a lot. And don't think that just because I'm not paying attention doesn't mean I can't hear you're sweet nothings," he directed to Mia and Riley.

"Hurry up, darling," Mia said just to aggravate Ben.

"_I'm getting there, honey buns," _Riley replied with the same intent.

"I just don't understand why it's so hard for you to include others in your decisions," Abigail said.

"You want to know what we're doing here?" Ben asked. Abigail nodded and he leaned in to whisper in her ear. "I think there's a clue in the Resolute Desk in the Queen's study," he said with a laugh.

"_Door number one,"_ Riley said. _"Open." _

"Just because you know what my answering is going to be, doesn't mean you don't have to ask me," Abigail said to Ben.

Mia walked out, followed by Ben but the latter stopped in the doorway. "All right, let me try this out. Abigail, would you like to come with us, please?"

"Yes," she replied deadpan. "Thank you."

"Ridiculous," he said. "You're staying here. It's too dangerous."

"I am so coming," she said walking out of the door.

"Crap..." Mia muttered. They all strode up to another door and Mia said, "We're at door number two."

"_Door number two,"_ he confirmed. Again Mia went through the glass doors, but Ben stopped and held out his arm.

"You're staying here!" he said.

"Call Security," she replied shoving her way through his arm to the hallway outside the door.

"_You should be near a service elevator,"_ Riley told them. Mia spotted it and climbed quickly inside. Ben went to a cart, grabbed a vase of flowers, and tried to climbed in next to her.

"What are you doing?" Abigail asked. "Are those for the Queen?" she asked sarcastically.

"There's no flag flying," Ben said. "The Queen's at Windsor. Now I'm going to see the desk without you, bye bye."

"Ben, hurry up," Mia said nervously.

"_No, no, no,"_ Riley said. _"Don't let her go." _A shadow started to appear from around the corner and Ben panicked.

"Get in!" he ordered Abigail. "Get in! Get in!" he continued to say until finally, she got the hint. He quickly pushed the button for the elevator, then closed the doors.

"Why do you have to be such a good person?" Mia asked her brother.

"Shut up," he growled. "Would you give me the flowers back, please?" he asked. Mia was squashed in between the two others and Ben was staring at Abigail.

"What?" she asked.

"You're wearing the perfume I bought you," he replied.

"So?" she asked.

"So I think it smells kind of pretty," he said.

"It's the flowers Ben," Abigail said.

"No it's not..." Ben replied.

"It's the flowers," she said again.

"_Awkward,"_ Riley mumbled in their ears. Mia's eyes found the floor and studied it until the tense air passed.

They finally reached the right floor. When the door opened, Abigail was the first to get out, followed by Ben then Mia. As they walked, Ben asked Riley, who had a map, where to go.

"_Turn left,"_ he said. They were met with a dead end. Mia vocalized this and he said,_ "I mean right. Right. Go right."_

"Directionally challenged are we?" Mia asked.

"_Love you too, baby,"_ he replied affectionately. Ben crossed his eyes at their conversation and Mia laughed.

"Sorry, Ben," she said with a grin. "I guess this is just getting back at you for all the times you did that to us." He rolled his eyes and continued until he saw someone else walking towards them. Ben and Abigail muttered something about the flowers' petals or something but Mia just kept walking to the door to the Queen's study.

She gently opened it and walked in followed by her brother. "There it is," Abigail said.

"_No shit Sherlock,"_ Riley muttered in Mia's ear. _"I'm not even with you and I know that it's there..._" Both Ben and Mia had to stifle their laughter as to not offend her. Ben set the flowers down and walked over to the desk. He looked closely at the design and muttered something to Abigail about patterns in the carving. She nodded and started to look around the molding. Mia started to search the top of the desk.

"I so can't believe I'm going through the Queen of England's desk..." she whispered rifling through the papers on top of the desk.

Ben laid down on his back and looked at the bottom of the desk. He saw a stamp in the wood. "Malcolm Gilvary..." he read aloud.

"_Hold on one second. Malcolm Gilvary..." _Riley said after Ben read it off. _"Well, he didn't make furniture... He made Chinese Puzzle Boxes..."_

"So you're telling me the Resolute Desk is not a desk at all and is really a Chinese Puzzle Box?" Mia asked.

"_Exactly,"_ Riley replied.

"Unbelievable..." she whispered.

"_Yeah, I've stopped being surprised by these things,"_ he said. _"I mean after all we've seen, it wouldn't shock me to learn that...Mount Rushmore is a cover up for example._"

Mia snorted. "Yeah, right Riley. Like that's ever going to happen."

"_I'm just saying it wouldn't shock me,"_ he said.

"Right..." she whispered opening on of the drawers. She began going through what was in in but when she found nothing, she started to close the drawer.

"Wait!" Ben said. She stopped and he said, "There's something carved on the bottom here..."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Numbers..." he said. She watched as he fingered the bottom of the drawer, and pulled open another one. "I think, these drawers work like tumblers in a safe," he said.

"Four drawers," Abigail said.

"Four digit combination," Mia completed.

"What about a year?" she asked.

"_Hold on,"_ Riley said. The sound of typing could be heard and he said, _"Okay, Queen Victoria born 1817." _

"Try that," Mia said to Ben. He did so, but nothing happened. Mia furrowed her brow in thought. "1876 was engraved on the statue," she said. "Try 1876."

"Okay," Ben said. When all the numbers were in place, something popped out from the side of the desk.

Her head snapped to the side to look at in whispering, "Indiana Jones movie, here I come." Mia walked over to it, fingered the wooded square, and tried to decide what to do with it. "Try turning it," Abigail suggested. Mia complied, and it worked.

"Now push it in," Ben said. Mia did so and something else popped out.

"Ben!" she said excitedly. "Ben come and look at this!" She pulled out the drawer revealing a wooden plank with bizzare markings on it.

"I have never seen markings like these..." Abigail muttered lightly touching her finger tips to the wood.

"Uh oh," Ben said examining it. "New rules."

"New rules?" Mia asked. "We're in a whole new game..."

"What are you thinking?" Ben asked.

"Incan," she said thinking aloud. "Or Aztec maybe...This must be centuries older than the Civil War."

"She's right Ben," Abigail said. "What do you think it is?"

"I don't know," he said, "but I doubt it has anything to do with the plot to assassinate Lincoln."

"_Uh oh,"_ Riley said interrupting their debate. _"Mayday, mayday. Get out of there."_

"What is it?" Mia asked.

"_The guards know you're missing,"_he answered. Ben demeanor acquired a tenseness to it and he placed the plank in his pants.

"Now that's sanitary," Mia said sarcastically. Ben shrugged and made his way back down to the entrance hall where they were soon engulfed in a mass of people. Mia squeaked when someone placed a hand on her shoulder, but soon found out it was only Riley.

"Sorry," he said in her ear trying to get his voice above the fire alarm he had set off. She shrugged to let him know it was okay. Soon, they were outside calmly passing through the gates as if their small trip to the palace was so rudely interrupted.

As soon as they were out past the gates, Riley tried to asked, "So what'd you get?" but couldn't because he soon was attacked by a group of dogs. Mia fell into a desperate fit of the giggles as Ben was scolding Riley that they didn't have time.

The dog walkers were apologizing profusely as Riley disentangled himself from the leashes and walked back up to Ben. "So what'd you get?" Ben handed him the wood. "We broke into Buckingham Palace and all we got was this old piece of wood?" he asked.

But Abigail was soon beside him explaining the significance of the markings. A dog barked and Ben looked around and saw the one person he thought he'd never see again. The man smiled evilly back at him and Ben exclaimed, "Wilkinson!" and ran to the car.

--

A/N: So there you go. Review if you want to. I'll try to get the next chapter up in a few days but I can't promise anything 'cause school started so, I will try my best to get it up for you. ;D


	5. NEVER Again

Dsiclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. I really wish it was, but it's not.

A/N: So I'm sorry for the long wait. School has really been crazy. I mean I have like mountains of homework plus the looming auditions for Misummer Night's Dream at school... And I've been attacked by more bugs so I'm on some sort of Meds. I think I need a nap... But enough of my issues. I'll let you get to the story.

--

Mia recognized the name and glanced around only to see what Ben saw and dashed after him. "I'll drive!" she heard Riley say as she hopped into the backseat of the car.

Ben made another retort, but it was drowned out by the glass in the back window shattering and several gunshots. Mia shrieked and ducked down just before a bullet flew by her head. "Everyone keep you heads down!" Ben shouted as he threw the car into reverse. _As if I would do anything else_, she thought dryly.

He used the small camera in the back of the small European car to maneuver so he wouldn't hit any unlucky pedestrians. He was successful in doing so, but bullets still pounded the car. When he finally had to pick his head up and look through the windshield the rain of bullets had stopped but their enemies had gotten a car of their own. "Drive!" Mia screamed. Ben didn't need to be told twice. He stomped on the gas pedal and the car flew forward.

They drove up and down so many various streets that Mia had a hard time keeping track of them all. But no matter how many times Ben swerved and weaved, they were still right behind them, on their tail. Soon, they were stuck behind a large truck carrying barrels of beer. The man behind them shot off the chains and the barrels tumbled out of the car and onto the hood of the car, splashing the liquid all over the windshield. "Ben!" Mia squealed her fingernails digging into Riley's shoulder, but he hardly noticed. His heart was pounding too fast and loud in his ears that he wasn't aware of much of anything around him.

As soon as they were free of the truck and what looked like their pursuers, Ben stopped paying attention to the road, which wasn't the smartest idea. They made it to an intersection and made to keep going forward, but there was a large double-decker bus there. Ben made a sharp turn but didn't stop completely from hitting the bus and smashing out the two passenger's side windows. Glass flew and cut one side of Mia's cheek as she painfully slammed against the door. "Mia?" Riley called back to her, nervous. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied, gently touching the blood dripping down from her wound. "Just a cut."

Ben pulled into a small street where everyone was walking in the street. Ben honked his horn as the pedestrians cursed loudly and made rude hand gestures to the people in the car. Before long, all the people were running away... and fast. "Why is everyone running?" Riley asked.

There was a louder horn and when Mia turned around, the large truck now empty of all alcoholic beverages was going towards them "Ben, go!" Abigail shouted. "Go!" Mia was vapor locked as she stared behind her, dreading the possibility that they would reach them.

"Did I just run over a man's foot?" she heard Ben yell and she was yanked from her trance as her brother tried to speed into a narrower alley where the truck couldn't follow. Fortunately, he was successful and as he turned onto a street, Abigail's phone rang. She took it out of her purse and said, "It's him."

"You have his number in your speed dial?" Riley asked.

"Oh, shut..." Abigail whispered hitting his shoulder as Ben picked up the phone.

"Mitch," he said. "We have to stop this before someone gets hurt." Leave it to Ben to think of the noble reason... He said something on the other end and Ben replied, "Tell that to my father."

Mia looked at Ben and asked, "What'd he want?"

"He wanted the plank from Buckingham Palace," Ben replied. "Does this have a camera in it?" he asked Abigail.

"No," she answered. "No, it's broken." Ben growled in frustration and tossed the phone back.

"Okay," he said. "Everyone hold on. We're gonna run a red light." As he sped through the intersection dodging both pedestrians and other cars, he put the plank in front of his face. All three passengers screamed as they ran the light and didn't stop until they were safe on the other side.

"Hack into the London Police database and get me a copy of that photo," Ben said to Riley.

"Okey dokey," Riley said sarcastically.

"What?" Ben asked. "You can't do it?"

"No I can do it," he replied. "I just don't like the fact that you assume I can do it."

Abigail laughed bitterly and said, "Why, thank you Riley."

Ben ignored this and continued to speed down the London streets, trying to evade Mitch and his cronies. Mia swallowed down her stomach contents as she tried to block out the vertigo sensation that engulfed her as Ben continued to swerve.

He took the plank, rolled down his window and pretended to hand it to the other man in Mitch's vehicle. But just as he was about to grab it, Ben tossed it into the nearby river causing their car to jolt to a stop and Ben was finally able to lose them in the sea of London cars. "Is everyone all right?" Ben asked as he drove back to the hotel, as calm as he would be if they had just taken a drive in the country.

"Oh, yeah!" Riley said sarcastically. "We were just chased by more lunatics with guns down the entire London area! But you know, other than that I'm just peachy."

"Ben, stop the car," Mia said, her hand over her mouth muffling the sound of her voice. "Stop the car. I need to get out."

"What's the matter?" Riley asked, turning around in his seat worry written all over his face and his sarcasm gone.

"Stop the car," she muttered again, holding her stomach.

Ben, without another thought, pulled the car over to the side of the road. Before the vehicle was completely stopped, Mia leaped out and emptied her stomach contents onto the side of the highway.

Riley was not far behind her. He knelt next to her heaving body and gently placed a hand on her back and pulled her hair out from in front of her face. Abigail was rummaging through her purse, trying to find a napkin so she could wipe her face and Ben was pacing behind Mia and Riley, casting glances in their direction every few seconds.

When Abigail finally found what she was looking for, she got out from the car and handed it to Riley who took it with a quiet, "Thank you." She nodded back at him with a small smile and went to sit in the car.

Cars passed quickly by them going about their own business, not even stopping to think about what may be going on on the side of the road.

When the sound of retching and coughing finally stopped, Riley handed the napkin in his hand to Mia who took it gratefully. "Are you okay?" he asked, softly. She nodded, swallowing down the last of the lingering saliva in her mouth.

Ben knelt beside her and asked, "What happened?"

"Carsick," she said simply. "With all that fast driving and crashing, I guess my stomach couldn't take it."

"Sorry," Ben whispered.

"That's okay," she answered. "Come on. Let's get back to the hotel. I want to take a shower." Ben nodded and started to go back to the driver's side of the car while Riley helped Mia up off the dirty road.

Abigail moved to the front seat of the car and Mia and Riley got in the back seat. As Ben gingerly pulled away from the shoulder, Mia laid her head on Riley's chest. His arms wrapped around her and his fingers softly caressed her back.

Ben continued to glance back at them in the rear view mirror, and he drove with much more care than he had when he was outrunning Mitch.

When they reached the hotel room, Mia made her way to the bathroom to shower while Ben got online and booked the four of them tickets home since Abigail decided to join them.

Riley sat at the table with a blank look on his face just staring into the wooden top. Ben and Abigail exchanged glances, worried that he was somehow affected by everything that happened. "Riley," Ben said, snapping the young man out of his trance. "You okay?" he wondered.

"Yeah," he replied. His answer was very clearly a lie, one Ben could see right through.

"You sure about that?" he asked, skeptical.

Abigail had slipped out moments before, leaving Ben and Riley alone to talk. "Yeah," he said. "Why?"

"You seem a little… out of it," he replied.

"I'm just worried," he finally confessed. "I don't think Mia's been telling me the truth recently. I mean, it's nothing like I think she's running around on me," he clarified, not wanting to anger Ben, "but, it feels like she's hiding something from me."

"Riley," Ben answered, "I think that if it's really important, she'd tell you. I know she loves you. I've known it for a while. You have to trust her."

"It's not that I don't trust her, because I do," he replied trying to figure out how to describe what it was that he was feeling. "I just feel like… I don't even know. Something's going on and she doesn't seem to what to tell me about it. I can see it. What do I do Ben?"

"I think that maybe she's not hiding it," he responded. "Maybe she just wants you to ask her about it and she'll tell you. If it's not that, then… maybe she's just not ready to tell you. It might be something she wants to keep to herself for a while then tell you when she feels like it's the right time."

Riley seemed to think on this for a moment, and then said, "Thanks Ben. You know, I don't understand how you broke up with Abigail. You're really good at this woman behavior stuff. You could make a living."

"Shut up," Ben said with a smile on his face as he threw a balled up piece of paper at him. Riley smirked and walked from the room.

--

That car chase was definitely on my list of things to NEVER EVER DO AGAIN! I mean, holy hell, could Ben have been a worse driver? And what's up with Mitch? Road rage much? And his stupid cronies with their trigger happy fingers and guns! What the fudge nuts, dude? I mean, really. It was completely unnecessary and stupid and… a whole lot of other things that I can't think of right now because of all this blind fury! Urg!!!!

Grrrr………

Grr……

Sorry. I'm good now. My anger is gone… somewhat. Anyway, before I go on another rant, let's talk about lovely Mia. Yes, she's a stubborn one. She said she was fine, but I didn't believe her. And I took Ben's advice and asked Mia about it. It didn't… really go so well. Basically, she told me to leave it alone. But me being me, and you knowing the kind of person I am, I'm not really one to leave well enough alone. It's one of my very few character flaws. (Yes even I have those. Shocker, right?) But that's for later. For now, let's skip ahead to where we arrive back in the states and Ben's dad's house.

--

"Abigail!" the older Gates man exclaimed as the four walked up the drive to the front door.

"Hi, Patrick!" she said giving him a hug.

"It's good to see you back together again," he said.

"Well, we're not," she said hesitantly. Ben carried his suitcase into the house with a forced smile on his face. Mia followed close behind with nothing in her hands as Riley brought up the rear with both his, Mia's and Abigail's suitcases in his hand. He was having some issues getting up the three steps before the front door.

"That's okay," he called to them as the four others walked inside without even a glance backwards to him. "I'll just get it myself. No big deal."

"Sorry, dear," Mia replied jogging back out the open wood door. She grabbed the suitcase that had fallen. As soon as he got up the steps he held out his hand for the other case. "I've got it," she said shrinking back from him. "I'm a big girl."

He smiled and said, "Thank you."

"You don't always have to do things by yourself," she answered. "All you have to do is ask for help."

"I'll be sure to remember that," he said. She set down the case at the foot of the stairs where Ben had put his duffle bag. Riley followed suit and they walked hand in hand into the dining room.

Ben was typing on his computer with everyone leaning over him. His brow furrowed as his computer beeped rapidly and he asked, "Wait, what did I do? What's it doing?"

Riley chuckled softly and let go of Mia's hand. "Ben," he said pushing his way in front of Abigail. "Move out of the way. Let me do it."

With a slightly annoyed glance upward to his friend, he got up from the chair which Riley now sat in. He watched intently as Riley's fingers flew over the keys, quickly silencing the beeping and pulling up what he guessed Ben was looking for: the picture of the plank. "See? Easy as that." He looked to Mia and said, "And you call me the dumb one."

"I have never said anything of the sort…" she replied. "…in six months." A smile poked its way through on Abigail's face as Ben rolled his eyes and pushed his glasses up farther on the bridge of his noise.

"Can we just focus on this please?" Ben asked gesturing to the computer screen. Apparently everyone agreed with him and gathered around Riley who had enlarged the picture in the few short seconds they didn't pay attention to him.

"Well," Patrick said, squinting to read the blurry picture, "I can't read the whole thing… but I can tell you that these are definitely pre-colonial Native American markings."

"Easily five hundred years old," Ben muttered.

"Easily," his father agreed. He leaned in closer, making Riley slightly uncomfortable at the closeness of Patrick's face to his. Evidently his discomfort showed because Mia hid a smirk and a giggle behind her hand. But Patrick continued as if nothing was wrong. "I can identify one symbol. Look at this." Ben came in closer followed by Abigail and Riley seemed to shrink underneath all the bodies staring at the small computer screen. "Do you know what that is?" he asked his son.

"Sacred calendrical?" he guessed. "I don't know," he admitted.

"That symbol is Cibola," he said, some of the excitement he was feeling showing in his voice.

Ben covered his mouth and walked away from the small circle. "The City of Gold," he whispered, more to himself than anyone else. Patrick moved away from the screen out of shock more than anything else and Abigail looked in closer.

"Whew…" Mia sighed sitting down in a vacant chair across from Riley. "We have definitely stumbled into a whole new ball game."

Ben blinked and looked at her. "You think?" he asked.

"Wait," Riley said. "I know you're probably gonna think I'm crazy stupid, but what is 'the City of Gold'. I mean, I don't even know where the story comes from."

Instead of getting the criticism he thought he deserved, Ben just said, "Come on," and he walked from the room and into the living room. Riley followed with a slightly confused look on his face. Patrick knew what his son was doing so he followed without question.

Abigail and Mia exchanged glances and the former quirked her eyebrows in a silent question. Mia shrugged her shoulders and said, "We might as well." And they both followed the men into the living room.

--

A/N: So there you go. It's not as long as the others, but you'll live. There's some drama in the next chapter. Okay, so a lot of drama. And arguing. I bet you miss that from earlier. Review if you fell the need to. Other than that... I'm pretty much goods. I'll try and get it up as soon as I can but I'm not promising anything. I have most of it written but some of the small bits are still missing. And we need those, don't we. Again review if you want to and let me know what you think. Thanks.


	6. Raised Voices

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Don't think it is. I fail at life.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. My teachers think that we have no lives or the fact that other teachers give homework too. They're freakin' insane. Well, anyway, this is a pretty angsty chapter. Review if you want to. Thanks guys. :D

--

When the two women entered the living room, Ben was thumbing through a single book, with a few others strewn about the coffee table. Abigail sat cross legged on the floor, and opened one up to find a beautiful illustration of a man crawling onto shore. Mia sat down next to Riley, who was seated on the couch, just as Ben started to read. Patrick stood in the doorway, gazing towards the younger kids.

"In 1572, a Spanish ship wrecked on the Florida coast. There were only four survivors. One was a slave named Esteban who saved a local tribe's dying chief. As a reward he was taken to their sacred city, a city built from solid gold." He stopped to flip the page and Mia took this time to look around.

Abigail was still gazing at the book in front of her on the coffee table, Patrick was nodding his head in understanding and Riley's eyes were the size of saucers. Mia tried to hide a snort behind her hand at the ridiculousness of his expression, but everyone heard anyway.

"Sorry," she mumbled with a smile. "Go ahead Ben."

With the ghost of a smile playing behind his lips, Ben continued to read, "Later when Esteban tried to find the city again, he never could. But the legend grew, and every explorer came to the New World in search of it. When General Custer's search for gold ended with his last stand at Little Big Horn, it became clear, none would ever find it."

"Can you imagine if the Confederates got their hands on the City of Gold?" Patrick asked with eyes wide. "My God."

"What?" Riley asked. "What would happen?"

"It's the City of Gold, dumb ass," Mia said. "They'd be able to make and buy weapons beyond imagination. That's not to mention the amount of support they'd get from all the other countries just to get a piece of it. They probably would have won the Civil War. Slavery for us."

"We need to talk to her," Ben mumbled, and his father's head snapped up and stared at him. Ben's eyes met Patrick's and he continued with, "And you're coming with me."

"No!" Patrick exclaimed trying to exit the room. Riley looked between the two men in confusion. Abigail shook her head, trying to hold back a smile. Mia just sighed, knowing what eventually was going to come to pass.

"No one else can translate it," he said to his father as he blocked the doorway.

"There are others!" he contradicted. "There are several others."

"For ancient Native American?" he asked. "There's no one better. Mia, help me out here."

"Father," Mia sighed standing up, "you know how much it pains me to admit Ben is right about certain things, because most of the time he's wrong…" At this Ben furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to say something but closed it when she continued, "…but this time he is right. She's the best on the east coast and I don't feel like flying to California. Sorry."

"Then I can't go with you," he said. "It's been, what, 25 years?"

"32," Ben corrected bitterly.

"That long?" he asked to himself. "Well, there's a reason we haven't spoken in 32 years! We have nothing in common."

Mia blinked and exchanged glances with Ben who said matter-of-factly, "Me."

"But not me either," Mia said sarcastically. "I mean, my mother was a squirrel."

"I'm sure she's just as proud of you two as I am," Patrick said.

"Who?" Riley finally asked.

"Our mother," Mia answered her boyfriend. "We get to go back to college."

"I hated college," Riley muttered.

"Okay," Ben said. "We leave in twenty minutes. Go and get ready guys. You too, Dad."

Patrick grumbled something and walked from the room, followed by Mia and Riley who were going up to their room. Ben and Abigail exchanged smiles and he walked from the room, leaving her alone still flipping through the book.

--

Ben walked around in his father's house trying to find his sister and Riley. They were going down to talk to their mother in less than five minutes and he was sure they wanted to come. Raised voices met his ears. Curiously, as he walked closer to the bedroom where Mia and Riley were currently staying, he heard the words more clearly. "What are you hiding from me?" Riley yelled.

"It's nothing!" Mia shouted back. "Why do you have to be so nosy?"

"I'm not being nosy. For weeks you've shut me out!" he retorted. "What the hell is going on?"

"It's nothing!" she repeated. "Just leave it alone!"

"Obviously it's not 'nothing' because you're hiding it from me!" Riley sounded frustrated while Mia just sounded angry. Ben wanted to jump in but something told him to stay put for a little while longer.

"Stop it! Just stop this!" she shouted. "I need to figure things out! I just need to know what's going on before everyone knows about it!"

"So-so I'm everyone now?" he asked.

"No, you're- you're twisting my words!" she yelled.

"I am not!" he said. "I'm asking you to tell me! Just me! Not for you to shout it from the roof tops!"

"I told you!" she said. "I have to figure things out! You're just gonna have to deal with that!"

"That's not good enough!" he yelled.

"Well, it should be!"

Riley was about to respond when Ben decided to walk into the room. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked. Mia was standing on the opposite sides of the room as Riley and both had a defensive stance in their posture. Mia's arms were folded tightly and Riley looked like he had been talking wildly with his hands.

"No," Mia said the volume of her voice significantly lower, yet she still had anger in it. "What is it?"

"We're getting ready to go to Mom's," he said. "I know you wanted to come."

"Okay," she said. "We'll be down in a second."

"Sure," Ben said. As he walked out he saw Mia and Riley exchanged a few more words in harsh whispers before Mia walked out of the room and into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

--

Ben pulled Mia aside just before she walked out of the house and said, "What's happening between you and Riley?"

"Ben, leave it alone," she said as she kept walking.

"No," he replied grabbing her arm and swinging her around.

"Why do you people need to put yourselves in my business?" she whispered angrily at him.

"When your business is making both you and Riley angry," he whispered back.

"See? You just admitted it was my business," she replied. "So stay out of it." After sighing at the 'don't give me that' look on his face she said, "Look, I get that you're my brother and you're just doing what you do best, but stop it. Okay? Because it can get pretty damn irritating at times." She walked away leaving Ben staring after her, dumbfounded.

What was her deal?

Abigail was thinking the same thing when they refused to sit next to each other in the same car making her sit between them. They then folded their arms and stared out the opposite windows, refusing again to talk to her and tell her what was wrong. Both of their jaws were set tight and Mia looked like she wanted to smack someone in the face. Ben desperately hoped it wasn't him or Abigail.

So Abigail had to resort to asking Ben, who she knew would have an answer for her. "What is their deal?" she wondered as Mia stalked off leaving Riley behind scowling and slamming his door closed, a deathly glare crossing his features.

"Well, Mia's hiding something from him and he wants to know what it is, but she won't tell him," Ben said. "I heard them yelling when I went to tell her we were leaving. It sounded pretty intense."

"Well, I guess they have to fight at some time," she said. "No one's relationship is perfect."

"True," Ben said. "But she won't even tell me what she's hiding. She practically slapped me before we left because I was 'putting myself in her business,'" he said with air quotes. Abigail looked stunned. "I know. I don't know what's wrong with her."

Abigail shook her head and decided to drop it for now. Ben agreed and they started to walk to Ben's mother's office. "It's been so long," Patrick kept saying trying to dissuade Ben from making him go. "She probably doesn't even remember me."

As soon as he said that, a girl walked out of the office saying, "I _hate_ her!"

"We're in the right place," Patrick said, dryly. Ben rolled his eyes as they started to walk forward to the closed door.

"I think I'm gonna take myself out of the line of fire for this one, guys," Riley said with a nervous chuckle.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Mia asked angrily.

"I just meant that I didn't want to be there when your mother yells at your father," he said. "When bullets fly, they don't always hit their target."

"Well, not every relationship can work out Riley," Mia spat back.

"I can see that," he said.

Mia was about to retort with a murderous expression on her face when Ben interrupted her. "That is enough! You two, outside." He pointed to the exit to the hallway. "And don't come back in until you're done fighting."

"That could take a while," Riley said.

"Because of you!" she shouted.

"GET OUT!" Ben roared and watched as they walked out, all the while still yelling at each other.

--

People stared as Riley and Mia walked to the courtyard bellowing at each other the entire way. "I cannot believe you would insult my mother!" she yelled.

"I did not insult her," he replied for what felt like the hundredth time. "I just don't like to be in the middle when two people argue."

"Unless you're the one doing the arguing," she spat back.

"Well, I wouldn't need to argue if you would just tell me what the hell it is that you're hiding!" They stopped walking when they reached the open grass area. People continued to observe curiously at the storm forming right in front of them.

"Nothing that concerns you at the moment," she said again. "Why can't you just accept that?"

"Because if it's big enough for you to hide from me, then it's big enough for me to know about," he retorted. "Are you having some other relationship?" he asked and her mouth dropped.

"What?" she asked. "You think I'm some sort of whore? You are so _unbelievable_!"

"I did not say that!" he managed to stutter out.

"No, but you implied it," she hissed moving closer to him. "And in a way I think that's worse because you're too afraid to say it to my face."

"So you want to me to tell you that I think you're having an affair?" he wondered, disbelieving of what she was saying.

"If that's what you think, then yes!"

"Well, that's not what I think," he replied.

"Bullshit!" she shouted. "Godammit, Riley! I cannot deal with this anymore!"

"And you think it's any easier for me? Walking around knowing that the person I love is hiding something and doesn't trust me with it?" he asked, losing the last of the patients he had left.

"It is not a matter of trust, Riley," she said, exasperated.

"Then what is it?" he asked. "Please, explain it to me, because I really don't understand."

She laughed bitterly and said, "There are some things that people keep to themselves and for now, this is one of them. I am not ready to talk about it with anyone, not just you."

"I have heard that crap so many times I think I could recite it back to you," he spat in anger. "That's not good enough. I seriously think that I'm going crazy! Every minute I'm with you it's something different! 'I need this, I need that. Riley, stop doing this. Stop doing that.' I'm sick of it! Nothing I do is good enough. Nothing I do is right. I feel like Ben! I don't know how he's dealt with you his entire life, because I can hardly do it now. Sometimes…" he stopped trying to figure out what he was going to say. "Sometimes I wonder whether or not it was right to stop and help you!"

Mia blinked in surprise. What he said could've literally slapped her across the face. Riley sighed in anger, finally realizing what he said. "You bastard," she whispered with tears in her eyes. Nothing else was said as she ran away, crying.

Riley let out a few choice, colorful curse words and he dropped to the grass and buried his head in his hands, shielding his eyes from the prying people around him. He shook his head as he thought, _What the hell have you done this time, Riley?_

--

When Mia reached the small pond's edge, she stopped running and plopped into the grass. The tears that ran down her face were of anger, but not at Riley. She was mad at herself. "This is all my fault," she whispered to herself. "What is the matter with me? I mean, he is part of this. Why can't I tell him?"

_This is happening to you,_ her mind replied. _It has nothing to do with him. I mean, look at all the stuff he said to you! You should be angry at him! You have a right to be mad at him._

"But he only said those things because I hid this from him," she argued back. "And I can't be mad at someone who's rightfully angry. This is all my fault," she repeated, finally letting her tears flow freely.

She hid her face in her palms and felt the warm, salty water fall into her hands, pooling and dripping down her face and arms. "God look at me," she said blinking away the rest of her tears. "I'm falling apart," she whispered through ragged breaths.

Her thoughts engulfed her and she was oblivious to anything going on around her, until a soft voice she recognized said, "Mia?"

Riley knelt down a few feet behind her. "What?" she asked, trying to sound angry but failing. She just sounded scared at what he might say to her.

Though Riley didn't notice this as he was trying to work up the courage to say what he needed to say. "I'm sorry," he whispered and he sounded it. "What I said was… unfair, more than unfair. You- I love you and I never meant to say anything that would hurt you. My mouth gets ahead of my brain. You, of all people, should know that." He paused as if searching for the right words. "I know I don't deserve to be forgiven and I know if it really was that important you'd tell me." His voice caught and Mia's eyes filled with tears again.

She heard him rise from his stop behind her and start to walk away. "Riley," she called, still staring in front of her. "There's nothing to forgive. You were rightfully angry with me and sometimes we all say things we don't mean, myself included. I really do trust and love you Riley and I will tell you. Just right now, I can't. You have to understand that…" Her eyes closed as she silently hoped he would try and comfort her.

Riley bit his lip to prevent himself from saying anything else, thinking she needed quiet. He desperately wanted to go and hug her, repeatedly telling her he was sorry. It took everything he had to only walk forward and kneel directly behind her. His hand gently touched her back.

Mia felt his hand softly touch her back and that was all she needed to launch herself into his arms. "I'm sorry," she whispered as his arms tightly around her. "I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he answered smoothing down her hair. He pulled away and looked her in the eye. "It's okay. I can wait," he said with a small smile.

She smiled back and gently kissed him. "Thank you."

"I take it you two made up," someone said from above them.

Both looked up to see Ben walking down to them a few yards away with Abigail and Patrick following close behind him. "Yeah," Riley answered. "So what'd you find out?"

"Well, we only have half a treasure map," Abigail said ignoring the tear stained faces of her friends. There would be time for that later. Right now, it was all about the treasure.

"What?" Mia asked getting to her feet and helping Riley get to his. "Half a map?"

"Yep," Ben replied, slightly bitter. "It said, 'Find the noble bird, and let him take you by the hand and give you passage to the sacred city.' It doesn't say where…"

"That's the half that's missing," Mia said, piecing it together. "So where's the other part?"

"The carving on the Statue said 'These twins stand resolute' right?" Ben asked, hoping he got the translation right. Mia nodded slowly understanding where he was going.

"Wait, what?" Patrick asked. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Because you have a tendency to OVER REACT!" Ben shouted. Riley jumped slightly, but Mia smirked.

"Now who's the argumentative one?" she asked, but only Riley heard her and he desperately tried to stifle the fit of giggles that engulfed him.

"I'm sorry," Patrick said sheepishly.

"Me too," Ben said. "We have to look at that desk."

"What desk?" Riley asked.

"The President," Mia replied.

"Which president? Our President?" Riley asked.

"Unfortunately," Abigail replied with a nervous laugh.

"So that means…" Riley said, putting it together, "We have to- The White House?" he moaned.

"The Oval Office," Ben said, "to be exact."

Patrick shrugged and sighed sarcastically, "Why would I over react to that?"

--

So I know, a pretty lame place to end the chapter. I hope I didn't make them kiss and make up too soon... She's gonna be mad at someone else in another chapter later on. And it's not Riley. And its a plot twist... Kind of. I don't even know. Review if you guys want to. Thanks.


	7. No More

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. Only Mia. So please don't sue me. I don't intend to make money off of this.

A/N: So sorry people that this took so long to get up. Life happened and I was thrown amidst mountains of homework, choir, and theater rehearsals, not to mention Regional Theater Competitions are sneaking up fast. But as I was going through my old documents, I happened upon this story and I thought, "Oh dear. I have to write." So I sat down and wrote all nine pages in a matter of hours. I need to do that more often.

So here you go all you patient people who are reading my story. Enjoy this chapter. Review if you feel the inspiration to, but don't strain yourselves trying to come up with something. ;D

--

"Ben," Mia said beckoning him into a separate room. Riley had just found something online to help them get into the Oval office. Easter was fast approaching and there would be an Egg Roll at the White House in a few days. That was how they were going to get in. Abigail was going to make a date with Connor, whom Ben called 'her new boyfriend'. Much to Riley's surprise she didn't retort. All they would have to do was rehearse it so it didn't seem scripted.

"What is it Mia?" Ben wondered stepping into the room. She closed the door behind him and said, leaning against it with her arms crossed.

Sighing, she plucked up enough courage to say, "I don't feel comfortable with this."

"With what?" he wondered, curious as to what she was talking about. The closed door worried him, but it was his sister. He didn't expect her to whip a knife out and stab him to death right here. At least… he'd like to think that. But with how she'd been acting lately, something like that wouldn't surprise him in the least.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Breaking into the White House," she replied with her jaw set.

Ben shook his head and said, "Technically, we're not even 'breaking in'-" he started, but she cut him off with a humorless laugh.

"I don't give a damn about it being a technicality," she told him standing straight from her place leaning against the door. "You told me- no you promised me that Buckingham Palace would be the last time you did anything illegal. This counts as illegal, Ben."

"Mia," Ben sighed. "It is necessary."

"And so will the next thing, and the next, and the next. When is enough going to be enough for you? When you kidnap someone?"

"That's ridiculous," Ben snapped back.

"Is it?" she asked. "Is it really? Because with the road you're taking now, that's where you're going to end up. Just like Ian."

"I am not like him," he said fiercely. "I would never hurt someone."

"Maybe not intentionally," she said. "But what about by accident? Ben, you have to learn when to stop."

"This is the last time," he said with conviction. "I promise you, this is the last time."

"That's what you said before," she replied, slightly disheartened. "How do I know that this time you mean it?"

He placed a hand on her elbow and gave it a small squeeze. "I promise," he repeated in a whisper.

She swallowed and shrugged his hand off. "Whatever you say Ben," she mumbled. "I'm not going with you. I'll stay outside with Riley and Dad." Without another word she walked out of the room. Ben blinked and looked to the floor. No matter what it took, he would make sure this was the very last time he did anything illegal.

--

Mia walked out from the room and headed straight up the stairs. Riley noticed this and watched as she didn't look at anyone or anything. He curiously cocked his head to the side and wondered absently what she had to talk to Ben about. Even as Abigail asked him what he was doing, he pushed away from the table and ignored her.

Abigail groaned and threw her arms up in the air in annoyance, but he still ignored her. Before he knew it, he was climbing the stairs, and mere moments after that he found himself in front of a closed door. His knuckled gently rapped on the wood, but he got no answer. "Mia?" he called softly placing is palm on the door.

Still no answer. But there was a slight sniffle. Or at least, he thought there was. He could have been imaging it. _You'd better find out Riley, _he thought to himself. "Mia," he said a little louder. He tried turning the doorknob but found it was locked. Now he knew something was wrong. "Mia, honey, please open the door." He rapped louder on the wood, causing some concern from Ben down on the first floor.

His friend took the steps two at a time by the time Ben got to the door Riley was even more worried. "What's going on?" he asked Riley.

"I should be asking you that question," Riley snapped angrily, not even bothering to turn from the door.

"What?" Ben wondered.

"She was talking to you before she ran up here and locked herself in here," he explained. "This is your fault."

Ben stepped back as if he'd been hit, but he knew Riley was right. The younger man sighed and shook his head. "Listen," Riley muttered the venom and accusation gone from his voice. "I just… I don't blame you. I just know that this does have something to do with what you two talked about. I've got it."

Ben took a deep breath and nodded his head. Maybe this whole illegal thing was affecting more than he thought. "I'll be downstairs," he said, before Riley turned back to the door.

"Come on, Mia," Riley coaxed when Ben was gone. "Please open the door. Please."

Much to his relief, the doorknob began to turn and when it opened, Mia launched herself into his arms, tears actively rolling down her face.

"Shh," he cooed, picking her up and bringing her into the bedroom, gently closing the door behind him with his foot.

"I can't do this, Riles," she cried into his shoulder. "Ben promised and he broke it and I don't know what's going to happen to him and- and- and…" Each of her words was altered with sporadic sobs until finally she couldn't speak anymore and she just cried. Riley rubbed her back comfortingly rocking back and forth on his feet. Finally, she managed to control herself and pulled away from the chest she was currently clinging to.

Wiping the stray tears away she mumbled, "Sorry."

"Mia," Riley sighed, "where is all of this coming from? I mean, two years ago, you were- well not exactly all for it- but you were never against doing anything illegal so long as it was necessary. What's changed?"

She closed her eyes and bit her lip as if she was trying to decide something. Finally, she said, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Mia-" Riley began but he was promptly cut off.

"Riley," she said. "I don't want to talk about it."

Riley nodded. "Okay. Okay, fine. But you'll talk to me later right?" Mia didn't answer. "Right?" he pressed.

She hesitated for one second longer then replied, "Right. Later."

"Okay," he answered kissing the top of her head. "Good."

He pulled her into a hug, but she barely hugged back. Instead she closed her eyes and tried to sort through the thoughts that sped through her head at top speed. The loudest of which was _You can't keep putting this off. Riley's not stupid. He'll figure this out and if you don't tell him… he's not going to be happy._ But there was an internal debate and the opposite side replied, _**But he won't be happy anyway. What are a few more days?**_ She bit back more tears as she sat wrapped in his arms. How was she ever going to do this?

--

So I haven't really poked my head in to interrupt your reading in a while. Betcha thought I was done with that. HA! Guess again. I was merely letting you think that before crushing your dreams! Mwahahaha!

Actually that's not entirely true. Okay, okay so it's not true at all. I just wanted to laugh evilly at you. To be honest, I just so wrapped up in the story telling that I simply just didn't think about it. But now that I have, I must make up for lost time.

So the last time we spoke was… hm… Ah yes. Just after the car chase. Wow… I didn't realize I had gone that long without annoying you… Something must be wrong… I can't be that good of a person… But I digress. (YES! I have always wanted to use that work in conversation and finally I have!) Back to what this story is really about: my badass-ness. Ha, just kidding. I really like screwing with you.

But ANYWHO, the fight. Ah yes the fight. Very intense and with much tears to go around. It just goes back to the saying, "You don't know what you have until you've lost it." And that is 100 percent true. I'm living proof. And yet there is another example where my mouth gets ahead of my brain. I have got to start learning to synchronize them… And to make things _abundantly clear _I do _**not **_think that Mia was cheating on me. (Notice how I used both italics and bold there.) I _know _she would never do that and I know I would _never ever EVER_ even think about doing that to her. Good. Now that I have cleared my conscience, back to the problem at hand.

Boy I was SUPER glad I was not with Ben and his father to see Mia's mom. Not that I would rather be fighting… but you know. And we really didn't have to go at any rate. Ben and Abby told us every little detail of what happened in that office… the Cibola theory, what the planks translated to… and the tiny fact we would have to break into the White House. The _White House._ The **goddamn WHITE HOUSE!**

I know what you're thinking. Is Ben clinically insane, insanely annoying or does he just get his jollies performing dangerous and illegal stunts? I do not have the answer to that. I have tried to figure it out for the past eight years but sadly I have failed. It might even be a little bit of both… Who knows?

And Mia flipping out because of it? Hmm… even more curious evidence one must examine…

Well, I think I've wasted enough of your time. Yep, that just about makes up for the lack of interruptions before. Why don't I just get back to the wondrous story you all are enjoying so much.

--

The plans for their trickery were concluded and Ben and Abigail said goodbye to the other three to meet up with Conner. Mia, Riley, and her father, however, sat on a bench just beside both the White House and Ben's van.

The trio was quiet, listening to the ambient noise of the laughter of children around them and bird twittering in the cool day. A pair of children darted past them, giggling and shouting incoherent words of play. The little boy tripped right in front of them and Riley, out of pure instinct hopped from his seat and helped the little boy up. "There you go, little guy," he said as the parents came up from behind him.

"Johnny!" the mother called. "Oh good, you're all right," seeing the boy's lack of injury. "Thank you. Johnny, what do you say?"

"Thanks, Mister," he mumbled and ran off.

Riley smiled and said, "No problem." And he walked back to the father and daughter still seated on the bench. Mia had an odd smile on her face as her gazed locked on him as he sat down. "What?" he questioned her when she didn't stop staring. "What did I do?"

"Nothing," she replied. "That was just… really sweet Riley."

"I helped a kid off the ground…" he said, making sure she knew what she had seen.

"I know…" she said. "It's just…" Could this be it? Could she finally be ready to tell him what had been going on with her? "Never mind," she sighed. _Damn._

"All right," he said, remembering his promise to her. After another half hour of comfortable silence, they saw both Ben and Abigail emerging from the White House gates.

"Did you get it?" Riley asked as they all stood up at the same time.

"No," Ben replied. "Someone must have gotten there before us. It wasn't there." He pulled out his camera from his pocket. "But there was something stamped into the wood."

Everyone gathered around the tiny silver device as Ben pulled up the picture and zoomed in on the sealed stamped into the wood. "It looks like the Presidential Seal," Patrick said.

But Abigail shook her head and pointed to the screen. "It's not the Presidential Seal. See the Eagle is holding the scroll instead of olive branches." Something clicked inside of Mia's mind and she turned to asked Riley about it. Instead she saw him pacing behind the group, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Did none of you read my book?" he asked.

"Do you know what it means?" Ben wondered.

"Yes," he said.

"Riles, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?" Mia questioned with almost a smile on her face.

"Chapter 13," they said together both with wide grins. The rest of the crew was slightly lost at this point.

"It's not something I can tell you," Riley said to their confused glances. "It's something I have to show you… in my book." Ben nodded and moved to the back of his van. He opened the door revealing a cluttered mess of various misplaced objects that had no business in the back of a van. He dug out a package addressed to him from the bottom of the pile and Riley sighed. "You haven't even… opened it?"

"I was moving," Ben supplied lamely tearing into the manila envelope. Mia rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Just turn to chapter 13 Ben," she told him.

Ben placed his reading glasses on the bridge of his nose and flipped open the book right to chapter 13 as if it had been waiting to opened there all along. "The President's Secret Book?" he questioned skeptically.

"The President's Secret Book," Riley confirmed with a smile. "It happens to be a collection of documents, for Presidents, by Presidents, and for Presidents' eyes only. And I'm not just talking about JFK guys here. The eighteen and a half missing minutes of the Watergate Tapes."

"Did Apollo really land on the moon?" Mia supplied as well.

"Did it?" Riley emphasized for her. "And the coup de grace: Area 51."

But Abigail laughed at him. "Come on Riley. That's an- that's an urban legend."

"Is it Abigail?" he asked her. "Is it?"

She still shook her head, "But this is just-"

"Crazy?" he interrupted her. "Hmm, well the last time I checked, we pretty much make our living off crazy."

"He's got a point," Ben mumbled still reading the book in front of him.

"I guess so," Abigail surrendered, but still with a skeptical look on her face.

Patrick leaned in and tapped the page in front of him. "Same symbol," he said, again seeing the small eagle on the page.

"It was released in '66 under the Freedom of Information Act," Riley said. "The Eagle and the scrolls. The secret symbol to the President's book." When Ben didn't answer, Riley continued, "Ben, if it was you trying to convince me, you would have less evidence and I would already believe you by now."

"He's got a point," Mia emulated her brother. "If it's any consolation Ben, it makes sense to me. He really does know what he's talking about."

Slowly, Ben nodded. It did really all make sense. But there was one tiny little problem…

--

"All I need is a few minutes alone with him," Ben said sitting in a chair in his father's home again. Everyone else surrounded him, either sitting like Abigail or standing like Mia, Riley and Patrick.

"A few minutes really?" Mia asked.

"Ben, even if you were married to the President, you wouldn't be able to get a few minutes with him," Riley said.

"Not when he's surrounded by his handlers, but if I get him alone-"

"And how exactly to expect to get the _President_ alone?" Mia asked, not joking like Riley seemed to be. Her face looked strained just after hearing the few words already spoken.

"Before the Civil War, the states were all separate," Ben started. And right then Mia knew what was coming. Every single time he was going to do something he knew she didn't like, he would start off with some bit of history that either had little or nothing to do with what was about to happen. "People used to say 'The United States are". It wasn't until after the war, people started saying "the United States is. Under Lincoln, we became one nation."

"Skip the history lesson Ben," Mia snapped. "Get to your point."

"Lincoln paid for it with his life," Ben continued, completely ignoring his sister.

"So did Thomas Gates," Patrick said.

"So, how am I going to get him alone?" Ben asked the people in the room. "I'm going to kidnap him. I'm going to kidnap the President of the United States."

The whole room fell into a silence. Abigail finally gave a tentative laugh, while Riley simply blinked multiple times in confusion. All of a sudden Abigail, Riley, and Patrick started shouting things about him ruining his life amongst other things. But Mia was silent. She sunk into the chair nearest to her and covered her face with her hands. He really had gone off the deep end…

"How exactly do you plan on doing this?" she heard her father finally ask through the ramblings of everyone else.

"Well, I was thinking Mount Vernon," Ben said.

"Oh!" Patrick said.

"I'm in," Riley said simply.

But Mia shook her head. "No," she mumbled. "No, no more. I can't- This isn't- No more!" At her babbling, Riley looked over in concern as did Ben. His brow wrinkled in confusion as she rocked back and forth on her chair muttering to herself.

"Mia-" Riley started to say as he laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, but she recoiled quickly, stood up and ran from the room.

Ben leaped up from his chair and ran after her. Riley was about to follow, but Abigail grabbed his hand. "Let them go," she muttered. Riley looked back to where Mia ran out and reluctantly sat down in Mia's now vacated chair.

Ben on the other hand, dashed from the room and saw Mia try to wrench the front door open. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, adding some extra speed to stop her before she got out of the house. He put a hand on the door, so even if she unlocked it, she wouldn't be able to open it.

"Ben, let me go," she said with a stifled sob.

"Not until you tell me what that was about," Ben said pushing his way in front of her. She stopped struggling to get out the door and wiped her tears away with frustration.

"You promised me, Ben," he heard her mumble, though he didn't see her lips move. "You promised me _again_ that the White House would be the last time. I knew I couldn't trust you with this. I should have-"

"You should have what?" Ben asked when she didn't complete her statement.

"I should have left," she answered. "I knew that because you didn't keep your promise before you wouldn't keep it now. And now I am going to leave because I can't afford to be doing shit like this anymore!"

"Mia, what are you talking about?" Ben asked, exasperated. "This is necessary. It is to prove Thomas Gates's innocence!"

"Oh will you just stop?" Mia said. "This stopped being about Thomas Gates a long time ago and started to become about your need to be on the hunt. And don't try to tell me anything different, because this is what it is and you know it," she cut in. He had tried to open his mouth to speak. "I'm tired, Ben. Tired of constantly being in danger."

"Why?" he asked. "This has never bothered you before. In Templar you were all for it!"

"And look what happened to me," she said, referring to Ian. "And in Templar I was trying to clear my name too. Maybe Riley's right. In a few years, no one will remember Thomas Gates as being one of the conspirators."

"But maybe they will!" Ben replied.

"Well, that's just a risk I'm going to have to take," she said.

"But again I ask, why?" he said. "You never answered that in the first place."

Mia swallowed, ran her hands through her hair and started to say, "There are… underlying circumstances that have… presented themselves in recent weeks."

"What?" Ben asked. Why was she talking like this as if she was trying to avoid me actually knowing why she wasn't going? "Mia I don't get it. What circumstances? What are you talking about?"

"I just…" she started to say, but couldn't find the right words. "I just can't afford to keep putting myself in danger anymore. I have to… I have to go. I can't be a part of this anymore." Ben just stared at her, confusion etched into every one of his features.

He let her push past him and open the front door. But before she left the front porch, she turned around and spoke to Ben again. "Tell Riley I'll see him in a few days. I just have to get away. And I hope you find what you're looking for Ben. No matter what it is. Good luck." And with tears in her eyes, she turned her back on her brother and walked down the street.

Ben blinked and watched his sister disappear around the corner. There was nothing further he could do out on the porch, so he made the decision to move back inside where he would have to explain to everyone where she went and why she left, though he didn't know himself.

As soon as he entered the living room, three voices pounded his ears at once, until finally Abigail called silence to the room and calmly asked, "Where's Mia? What was that about?"

"Mia left," he found himself automatically saying. "She said she… she said she didn't want to do this anymore and that she couldn't afford to be putting herself in constant danger. She said she was going to get away for a few days."

"Why?" Riley asked, his voice strangely high pitched. Ben recognized the fear, the confusion, but mostly the hurt in his voice. She left without talking to him.

"I…" Ben said until he realized he didn't know why she had left. "I don't know. She just said there were 'underlying circumstances that presented themselves in the past few weeks'. She didn't elaborate."

"Oh God," he heard Abigail say. The tone of her voice snapped him out of his confused trance. Suddenly his mind was working again and he thought back to all that had happened with Mia in the past few weeks. "I know why Mia left," she said. His mind continued to whir with options each only fitting in a few clues until Abigail spoke again. He knew what she was about to say mere seconds before she said it. The pieces fit. But could she be without telling any of them?

"Mia's pregnant," Abigail said and the room fell silent.

--

A/N: So there's the end of the chapter. And yes, you all were right. ;D So review if you feel the need to. I don't mind if you don't. Hope you liked it. Hope I didn't make Mia too whiny. Because I'm sure that would annoy me. Just let me know…


	8. This is A Conspiracy!

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, please don't sue me.

A/N: Oh my Gosh I am sooooooooo sorry about the long wait. I seriously didn't have any time for myself and I feel just terrible about making the lot of you wait for so long! Luckily, summer is here and perhaps I will be able to get chapters up sooner! Okay, so I won't waste any more of your time and I will let you read.

~NT~NT~

Riley heard Abigail say Mia was pregnant, but did he believe it? Not at first. She would have told him… right? _Right? _But he wasn't so sure anymore… Is this was she was hiding? Probably. It made sense. All the things that had happened in the past few weeks fit like some sort of twisted jigsaw puzzle: her mood swings, nausea, not to mention her lack of enthusiasm when it came to dangerous things. But _why in the hell _didn't she tell him? Why didn't she trust him?

It soon came to Riley's attention that his legs no longer could hold him up. They had transformed into some mixture between jelly and water. Before he dropped completely to the ground, he managed to stumble into a chair. His hand shook and his vision blurred. _No! _his mind screamed. _No crying. Not now. _"Riley?" He heard a soft voice call his name.

Abigail had knelt in front of him and took one of his cold, trembling hands in her own. "Riley, are you okay?" But he didn't answer. He didn't trust himself to speak. If he did, he was almost completely certain he would burst into tears, mumble incoherently, or let out several extremely colorful curse words…or some combination of the three.

He heard Ben call his name this time in his baritone voice, but again he ignored the both of them. Ben and Abigail thought he was just ignoring them. Ben opened his mouth to speak again, but Abigail shook her head. "Ben, I should probably handle this."

"What are you talking about?" Ben questioned. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It just means that this… situation requires a more feminine touch," she answered. Ben seemed to think on this for a few seconds, then nodded and left the room. As soon as he was gone, Abigail spoke again, if it was possible even more gently this time. "Riley, sweetie, are you okay?"

"Not really," he muttered.

"Why?" she asked.

"Why?" he repeated, with a small chuckle. "My girlfriend just ran out without say goodbye to me herself, oh, and she didn't tell me she was pregnant with my child. So no, I'm not really okay."

"Riley," Abigail began. "I'm sure there are several very good reasons as to why she hasn't told you yet."

"Really? Like what?" he asked.

"Like…" Abigail said looking around the room as if trying to find an answer hidden among the stacks of miscellaneous books and historical artifacts. Then she looked back to him, "Like she was afraid of what you might think. She didn't know how you would respond and so she was afraid of what you might say. Or maybe, she wanted to stay involved and she knew if you knew, you would make her stay away to protect her."

"Those don't make any sense to me," Riley replied shaking his head.

"But to her they do," Abigail retorted. Riley closed his eyes and brought a trembling hand up to his forehead. Only after taking a deep breath did he trust himself enough to open his eyes again. "Does that make sense?" she asked tenderly.

"Yeah," he sighed, nodding. "Yeah that makes sense." He swallowed and then asked, "So what do we do?"

"Right now? Nothing. She needs to cool down and she doesn't want to take part in this President business. I think we should leave her be… for now." Riley nodded slowly knowing this all made sense. But he still had questions whirring in his mind.

How long were they going to wait? Where was Mia going to be when they went to talk to her? Was she going to even want to talk to them? All these unanswered inquires made it hard to focus on whatever Abigail wanted Ben and him to be doing.

~NT~NT~

Kidnapping the President? That was going to be a new one.

Okay… so… Mia's psycho behavior… Yeah now you know.

To be honest I was a little hurt because she didn't tell me about _my_ child. Though it hadn't really dawned on me at that point that I was going to be a father, that I was going to be responsible for another human life. If it had, I guarantee that I would have had a more in-your-face reaction, like fainting.

I was more concerned with the fact that Mia had lied to me. Not just hid the truth, but outright lied to me, and that stung.

Preparing for the President-kidnapping wasn't as exciting as one would normally think. In fact, it was kind of boring because I had little to do. There wasn't much in the way of tech going on. It more had to do with Ben and Patrick's acting abilities. Abigail and I just had to sit by the phone and wait for it to ring. Whether that was intentional or accidently remains to be seen. I don't know whether Ben was just trying not to overstrain me after what had gone down that morning or he just simply didn't need any fancy tech work.

The only thing I really got to do was make a few phone calls and lie to a few hotels. Not very exciting. A blown pipe there. Maybe an overcrowding here. Nothing too fancy and they all bought it. People really were too unsuspecting these days.

As far as the actual kidnapping went, I wasn't directly involved. Ben made it so he was the only one doing the actual kidnapping. The conversation going on between the President and Ben wasn't all that interesting for me. In fact, I don't remember all of it. I'm pretty sure it involved something about the President's character and how that could help Ben… or something. I do know that he got the location: the Library of Congress.

We were to meet him there in 20 minutes, which according to Abigail was just enough time to "persuade" Mia to join us. To my utter astonishment, we found her at home. I thought she would hop on the nearest plane to Australia, but clearly I was wrong. She was just sitting at home, staring out the window.

She had been crying, but had stopped for the time being. Before we went in, Abigail warned me.

~NT~NT~

"Riley, you can't let her know we know," she said.

"What are you talking about?" Riley wondered, about to enter the apartment.

"She has to be the one to tell you before you can tell her you know," Abigail explained. "If you tell her we know, she could get defensive and throw us out. That would not help at all." Riley blinked, but nodded his head. This would be the one time he would keep his mouth shut.

The key turned easily in the lock and the two entered the small room. Riley was the first to see Mia sitting by the window, staring out into the dark backyard. "Hey, Mia," Abigail said. The other woman turned and looked in the doorway. Satisfied her brother was not with them, she returned to gazing out the window. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she replied monotone. At this Abigail nodded her head as small as possible and in his pocket Riley pressed the speed dial for her phone. It rang out and she, acting like it was Ben, answered.

"Hey, Ben." She listened to nothing but got a very serious look on her face. "Yeah, I got it. Library of Congress, ten minutes. Sure we'll be there. See you later." And she hung up on the nonexistent Ben. "Riley," she said. "He found it. We have to go to the Library of Congress. See you later Mia."

She pulled on his arm so he would follow her out, but they had hardly reached the door when Mia called, "Wait."

They both turned and she pointed an accusatory finger at them. "This is a conspiracy. And most people wouldn't fall for it. But I have, dammit, and I'm coming with you. Let me get my coat."

Riley had to bite his lip to keep from smiling with joy. And Abigail's elbow to the ribs helped a little.

~NT~NT~

And we were off! I seriously could not believe that the stupid plan Abigail had came up with actually worked. Like legitlly. I mean, I thought Mia was smart… But then again, she didn't know it was me that was calling. Plus I know she would never pass up an opportunity like that. _Ever._

So the drive to the Library of Congress was mainly uneventful and quiet. It was when we actually got there that it started to get interesting.

"What did the President say the classification code was again?" Abigail asked, keeping her voice down. She did not need some stupid security guard screwing this one chance up.

"XY," Ben recounted. He had already addressed Mia's presence and didn't need to do so again. This was the only time she would forget about what had just happened with the President. But that didn't matter at this point because he had gotten the location. "Which means very _very_ special books. Where are they?"

Abigail gave him a look and suddenly led the way with Ben trailing at a close second and Riley and Mia third. They were about as subtle as a blow horn, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to the four people running through the library.

Finally after many flights of stairs (it seemed like Abigail was taking the long way there), they reached a door. With no avail, Abigail pulled the handle and it didn't open. There seemed to be an electronic lock on the handle. Ben shoved his way to the front and pushed a few buttons.

Much to everyone's surprise the door opened. Abigail looked behind her to Riley and Mia and simply shrugged her shoulders with a grin.

The door had led them to a small room overlooking the reading room of the library filled to the brim with highly valued books. "What was the number again?" Mia asked, saying her first words since arriving at the library.

"Two, three, four, seven, eight, six," Ben recited. Everyone mumbled it under their breath as they searched the stacks and shelves of unique and rare books. Mia's finger ran along the spine to be sure she was checking the right book but the number didn't match.

Before she had the chance to check another shelf, Ben said, "I found it." Abigail was first to get there and check the opposite side of the shelf moving until her and Ben's fingers met in the center. But there was no book.

"It's not there," Abigail said. _Man she states the obvious a lot_ Mia thought to herself.

"Maybe someone checked it out," Riley mumbled and Mia couldn't help but grin slightly. Ben shook his head and refused to believe it wasn't there. He started grabbing books from the shelf and passing them to Riley who was quickly overwhelmed.

"Why would he send us here if there's no book?" Abigail questioned.

"He probably wanted us to get caught," Riley replied cynically.

Ben continued to shovel books off the shelf paying no mind that they were delicate. He suddenly stopped as if he were frozen as something on the shelf caught his eye. "There's a six-dial combination lock," he informed the people around him.

"Do you know the combination?" Mia asked excitedly.

Ben mumbled to himself then said out loud after grabbing the ladder to reach the lock, "The location is the combination."

Riley repeated this under his breath in awe as Ben dialed in the numbers. The hidden compartment popped open and an air of excitement filled the room. Ben reached for the book and pulled it out from the compartment.

Abigail looked at the cover of the book and said with a grin, "The eagle with the scrolls."

Riley smiled and laughed to himself, "I was right."

Ben hopped down from the ladder, patted Riley on the back and said, "Well done, Mr. Poole." Mia beamed as she squeezed his arm.

"Good job, honey," she whispered, then moved to where Ben was getting ready to flip through the book. Riley deposited the pile of books in his arms onto the nearest table and joined Mia next to Ben and Abigail.

Ben opened it and flipped through quickly, trying not to be tempted by the secrets concealed within its binding. Riley however was not trying so hard. "Area 51!" he exclaimed as Ben flipped past that page. He was hushed quickly by his friend but continued to exclaim out loud. "It's the Kennedy Assassination!"

"Shh!" Ben said. "We don't have time!"

Riley nodded and tried to recover. "It's true…"

Finally he reached the page he wanted and said, "Here." He then began to read aloud from the written text. "'April 1865, Queen Victoria sends General Albert Pike two coded missives. The first is received. Contains information on New World treasure: the City of Gold.'" He grinned to the people around him as he read this.

But Riley looked confused. _As always_ Mia sighed in her brain. "Wait, the Queen wanted to help the Confederacy?"

"Well divided America would have been weaker," Abigail said.

"And they needed cotton from the South," Mia added matter-of-factly.

Ben ignored this exchange and plowed on through what the rest of the page said. "'The second was thought to contain a Playfair Cipher suggesting contact with Laboulaye who will hide clues before his death.'" He lifted his eyes from the page and addresses his companions. "That's the cipher on the Booth Diary page."

"The one Thomas tried to burn," Mia added.

"The one we have," Riley clarified.

"Right," Ben agreed with the both of them. He returned his attention to the book, "'1880, Resolute Desk arrives in Washington sent by Queen to President Hayes.'" Flipping the page he pulled out a picture with the plank's image on it. "Look at that," he said.

Abigail took the photo with care from Ben and said, "The missing plank from the White House."

"Do you have a need to state the obvious?" Mia asked. "Or is it just a habit?" Abigail glared and Mia smiled. Riley held up his hand and she gave him a high five.

"Good one," he said. "I'm teaching you well."

"Can we focus please?" Ben asked, slightly annoyed. Again, his attention returned to the book in front of him. "Here's the final entry from President Coolidge. '1924, I found a plank in secret compartment indie desk. Plank was photographed and the destroyed.'" He sounded a little flabbergasted that they would destroy anything so valuable, but continued to read. "'Borglum commissioned to destroy landmarks in sacred Black Hills Mountains.'"

Abigail furrowed her brow and asked, "Borglum? Mount Rushmore?"

Ben face's lit up in realization. "He carved Mount Rushmore to erase the map's landmarks in order to protect the City of Gold…"

"Mount Rushmore _was_ a cover up!" Riley said eyes wide looking over to Mia who had the same surprised expression.

"You have got to be kidding me…" she mumbled to herself. Shaking her head she continued, "Someone seriously needs to be writing this stuff down." Ben ignored her as he put the books back on the shelf after he placed the Secret Book back in its compartment.

"Why's that?" Riley asked.

"Dude," she said. "Someone could make a kick-ass movie out of this shit. I mean, have you listened to any of this? The President's secret book? The City of Gold? Mount Rushmore: cover up? Damn."

"Well, you can sell the rights to Disney as soon as we're all off the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List," Ben replied, his voice slightly tense.

"Now who said it was going to be Disney?" she asked with her eyebrows raised. "Maybe I'll get Jerry Bruckheimer in on it. He likes chasing people, blowing crap up and guns, right?" she wondered. At that moment, sirens wailed outside of the building.

"There are my tax dollars at work coming to arrest me," Riley said glancing out the window seeing multiple police cars skid to a stop in front of the building.

"They're not coming for you Riley," Ben said. "They're coming for me. Go to the car."

"No, Ben," Abigail denied moving towards him but Ben shook his head.

"Go, I'll meet up with you," he said.

Each seemed to think about this for a moment then decided it was best to do as he said. "Ben," Mia said. He looked to her. "If I get arrested, I'm blaming you."

"Well then, here's hoping you don't get arrested," Ben said with a grin. She smirked and winked then felt her hand being grabbed by Riley practically dragging her out the door. Abigail was leading and soon they found themselves again running through the Library of Congress.

~NT~NT~

So there you go. I promise that it won't take nearly as long as last time! Again I'm sorry! Please don't kill me...


	9. Escape

Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine. In my long absence perhaps you had forgotten that, but I am here to remind you.

A/N: Okay, so I know it's taken .ER for me to get this up and believe me when I say I am SOOOO sorry about the long wait. Life was… life and I never really got around to writing this… Okay that's a lie. I had most of it written but I didn't know how to transition between this and the other scene I wanted to write.

This chapter is fairly funny if I do say so myself. After all the tension and what not I figure some humor would go a long way. And the thought of Ben shouting "G'day mate!" just made me giggle uncontrollably. Just read the chapter and you'll know what I'm talking about. :D All righty then I think I've made this author's not long enough and I'm sure you want to get reading. :D Enjoy and review if the inspiration strikes you.

~NT~NT~NT~

As soon as Abigail led them to the ground floor, they stopped running and attempted to conceal their labored breathing. Calmly and without notice, all three managed to slip through a small door behind the checkout counter and down into the bowels of the library.

They ran in single file down flight after flight of stairs paying no notice to those who stared curiously after them. They seemed to be well aware of the thundering the police and FBI were making as they searched the building and unknowingly followed them.

When they reached the loading dock behind the building where they had parked a security guard seemed to appear from nowhere. His flashlight shown in their faces as all three gasped in surprise. Abigail had actually made a noise. "Where are you going?"

"We, uh, work here," Abigail fabricated showing him her Archive's ID. Both she and Riley blabbered on and on at the same time as the security guard eyed them suspiciously.

"Forgive them!" Mia shouted over her friends' unrelated babble. Both silenced immediately. "They don't usually get involved in things like this. They spend too much time with their noses in books. If we could just get to our car…"

"Of course," the guard said stepping aside for them to pass.

"Thank you," Mia replied. As soon as they were out of the guard's sight both Abigail and Riley gave Mia a shocked look. "Don't look at me like that. If I had let you guys keep going, we wouldn't have been able to leave." Abigail reluctantly nodded as she unlocked her car.

Through the rear-view mirror, she saw Ben climbing down the fire escape behind them. "Start the car," Riley said from the passenger's seat. Abigail did as she was told. "Put it in gear." Again, she followed his direction.

"Ah crap," Mia grumbled from the back seat as she saw the same security guard shine the flashlight into their car.

"What's the problem?" he asked.

"We're going to jail," Riley said.

"Goddamn you Ben," Mia muttered.

The security guard started to talk into his radio and Abigail made a split second decision. She stomped on the accelerator sending the car flying forward and the security guard running for cover. The trunk opened and Mia saw Ben sprinting with all his might to try and catch up with the car. He dived and managed to pull his body into the trunk, close the door, and climb into the backseat with Mia. "Are you okay?" Abigail asked.

"I'm fine," Ben gasped. "Go!"

They drove faster and faster through the loading docks and made it to a few meters before the guard's station. Much to Mia's dismay, the metal barricade was starting to rise, nearly preventing their escape. "I don't think so!" Abigail shouted stomping ever harder on the accelerator.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Riley screamed as the rest of the passengers shouted and braced themselves for impact. They didn't hit the barricade head on, but the bumper caught and ripped off. Abigail paid no mind, but kept on driving away from all the people who wanted to throw them in prison.

"This is why I didn't want to come back! You are all going to give me a heart attack!" Mia shouted as Riley added his own commentary.

"That did not turn out the way it was supposed to!" he said, slightly panicking.

"How did they find us so quickly?" Abigail questioned.

"I'll tell you how!" Riley shouted. "The President is a tattle tale!"

But Ben shook his head. "Sadusky," he simply said. "He knows more about the book than I originally thought."

"And how did the President feel about being kidnapped?" Mia asked, not amused.

"He was okay," Ben replied seriously. Mia scowled and smacked him on the arm.

"So where are we going?" Abigail asked, not wanting to drive around aimlessly for too long.

"I would have thought that was obvious," Ben replied. "We're going to Mount Rushmore. So to the airport."

"Hold on," Mia said. "Do you have cash?" Everyone in the car shook their heads. "Make like you're going to my dad's," Mia directed.

"What?" Abigail asked, confused. That was the first place the FBI would look. "Why are we going there?"

"We're not," Mia stated but gave no further explanation.

"So why are we going that way?" Abigail pressed.

"Just do it," she said, exasperated. After they drove for about fifteen minutes Mia spoke up again. "Pull into the next shopping center." Abigail did as she was bidden.

"Now what?"

"Park." After her last direction was followed she turned to Ben. "Give me your credit card." He blinked.

"You do realize that's what got us caught last time, right?" Riley asked slowly.

"Yes I do," she answered, clearly getting annoyed. "Just trust me. Okay? As soon as I get back I'll explain everything. Just give it to me." Ben reluctantly dug through his pocket and handed over his credit card. "I'll be right back."

Without another word, she opened the car door, exited and walked into the grocery store closest to their parking spot. Her destination was the ATM. After giving a small wave towards the camera knowing Sadusky would soon be watching her, she withdrew as much money as she could in one shot, left the receipt and exited without a word to anyone.

When she was safely back in the car, she said, "All right. Now we can go to the airport."

Abigail began the drive to their destination as Ben looked at Mia expectantly. "Care to explain your brilliant plan? Why didn't we just get money from the airport?"

"Wow, Ben," Mia said. "For being a convict you sure don't know anything about evading the police." He still looked at her. Riley had also turned around to stare at his girlfriend and Abigail was stealing glances through the rear-view mirror. "If we had gotten money from the airport the police would have found out in twenty minutes and there would be no way for us to leave the city. This way, they don't know where we're going and we have a decent head start before they figure out where we're headed. I told you to go to Dad's house so it doesn't look like we're going to the airport. It looks like we're going to hide out."

Ben stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "That's a good idea."

"You know, for not wanting to do anything illegal, you sure are doing a lot of illegal things," Riley said with a grin.

"Shut it, Poole, or I'll throw you out of the car," Mia threatened. The rest of the car ride was met with silence until they reached the airport. "Park legally," she said. "I don't want it to be too easy for them to find us."

Getting out of the car, the three others look apprehensive. "Stop, stop," she said to Ben. "You look like hell. Take off the jacket." He did as directed and she unbuttoned the two top ones. After doing that she fluffed his hair, wiped the sweat off with his discarded jacket, and stepped back to admire her work. "That'll work," she shrugged linking her arm through his. "Follow my lead," she hissed behind her.

They reached the ticket counter, the three still feeling a little apprehensive. Mia beamed at the man at the counter and said in a surprisingly accurate southern accent, "Hi there! I'm Amy. How are you doin'?"

"Fine, thanks," the man replied. He eyed Ben and said, "Aren't you that treasure hunter guy? Ben Gates?" _That's it_ Abigail thought.

_We're done for_ Riley thought similarly.

But Mia giggled. It was a high pitched and annoying laugh, a noise Riley had not heard Mia make in all the time he had known her. "No," she replied, still with her southern accent. "No. If only, right? He gets that a lot. I mean I wish he was. I mean, all that treasure? I wouldn't know what to do with it! But sadly he isn't. This is my husband Paul. He's from Australia. Isn't that just so exotic? Say hi to the nice boy, Paul."

Ben used all his knowledge of the way Steve Irwin talked and managed to spit out a relatively believable, "G'day mate!"

Mia giggled again and said, "Isn't he just the cutest thing! Oh! How rude of me! This is my sister Annabelle and her husband, Viktor."

Abigail thought she should play along so she replied, "Hi there."

"We're the world travelin' sort," Mia continued, "and we met him in Bulgaria."

"Oh, you mean like that guy from _Harry Potter_," the kid behind the counter said. "The Quidditch player, Viktor Krum?"

Again she giggled, and said, "Yeah! Except he ain't one, but wouldn't that be a hoot if he was? Say hi Viktor." Riley didn't reply right away and Mia smiled. "He don't speak much English. Just try and say hi to the nice man."

"'Ow you?" Riley asked in a fairly believable foreign way.

"Well, to the point," Mia said and everyone could have sighed in relief. "Paul and Viktor are real excited to see the US and we thought since they had seen everythin' in DC we would show them Mount Rushmore. You know, American history and all that. So we need four tickets to South Dakota, please and thank you." He did what she asked without further inquiry and soon they were off to security.

Riley pulled her aside. "Viktor from Bulgaria?" he asked in outrage. "You couldn't have come up with anything better than that?"

"I was thinking on my toes okay!" she defended. "Besides, you've seen those movies and read those books a thousand times so I figured you would know how he talks. Beside someone from Britain would have been an obvious lie-"

"And someone from Bulgaria isn't?" he asked.

"-so I just spat out the first thing that came to mind."

"How about John from Los Angeles?" he asked.

"Too normal," she said. "I want to have fun fabricating."

"I thought this was meant to prevent the police from finding us," Riley said.

"It is."

"And Sandy Cheeks and her sister running around with Steve Irwin and a fictional Quidditch player isn't conspicuous?" he asked.

"They're gonna catch up with us here at some point anyway," she said. "But we'll be on a plane when that happens. When we actually get to South Dakota, then we'll have to lie low."

"So what was the point of doing the whole ATM thing?" he asked confused.

"Well, I didn't want them to find us immediately," she said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "Just pretend until we land then you can drop the act, okay?" And she walked up to Ben telling him almost the same thing.

Riley turned to his 'wife' Abigail and said in a rather good impression of a Bulgarian, "Vell, ve fought bravely…"

~NT~NT~NT~

Riley never liked flying. All those security and safety precautions made him paranoid. And after watching _LOST_… forget it. He was a nervous wreck. Though he was slightly thankful they weren't flying over the ocean… But there was more a chance of him dying when they crashed… Crap. And to top it all off he had to act like a Bulgarian man married to his best friend's ex-girlfriend. Talk about packing on the pressure.

Though Abigail was holding her own fairly well. Ben was hardly saying anything, letting Mia do all the talking. "I have to use the loo if you'll excuse me," Abigail said. "I'll be right back, sweetie. I just have to skip off to the loo."

Riley smiled inwardly. She was making this just too easy. "Oh, you mean like ze song?" he started to hum and Abigail just gave him a blank look. The people around them were stifling giggles at his feigned ignorance and he saw Abigail was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"No," Abigail replied. "No I mean the bathroom, dear." She turned to the people around them. "Isn't he just the cutest thing!" And she shot him a very subtle glare telling him never to try and pull something like that again. But Riley smirked. It was just so easy to poke fun at her!

But the plane shook and Riley's smirk vanished. God he hated flying.

~NT~NT~NT~

A/N: All righty then. I know that was kind of short but I thought I would give you guys something to chew on. I hope I can update soon, but with school rolling around I don't know when I'll be able to write more. Review if you want to!


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